Persona: Immersion
by Rikaruru
Summary: Welcome to Immersion, the pinnacle of online virtual reality. Players are sent to a familiar world wielding the mysterious power of Persona. Of course, the lines between the game and reality can fog. Mysteries abound. Who made Immersion? What inspired Persona? Why is the Kirijo Group involved? Why is it that when you stop playing the game, it never really ends?
1. Chapter 1

**Message of the Day – Welcome to Persona: Immersion! Contact the support desk at your local reality hub if you need any assistance!**

* * *

"Welcome to the reality hub! New players, please head to the support desk to receive your Immersion license," you hear from an intercom as you first walk into your local reality hub. A good shiver runs up your spine as you think about the immense jump in technology something like this must have taken. Crowds of people walk around the huge lobby. People were heading to multiple places in the gray and white tech-colored room. You imagine the people heading away from the main lobby's giant counter were heading into back rooms to reality links.

With excitement coursing through you, you head up to the line to the support desk. Excited murmurs fill the room. Despite the long line, you make it towards the front fairly quickly. Thank goodness, considering you started to get jealous of the future players who rushed out of the lobby. You remember that the Kirijo group was a major sponsor for the development team for Immersion, so it made sense that an efficient staff would be stationed at a reality hub. It also does a good job to explain the amazing technology for 2012.

"Next!" a female attendant shouts from a now-empty spot at the support desk counter. In a simple exchange, you pay for a subscription to Immersion and receive a key card. The key card has a picture of you taken from a small camera the staff lady's computer along with directions for the floor, hallway, and room that you need to go to in order to find your reality link.

You quickly head away from the lobby heading for the elevator. A quick gesture prompts the people already in the elevator to hold it for you as you give a light jog and nod in appreciation. You smile, though a reality check tells you that with the anonymity of an online game, virtual reality or not, there were bound to be all sorts of griefers and trolls. With reality hubs all over the world opening, it wasn't as if it'd be easy to find anyone either.

As you reach your floor, you round the corners quickly, trying hard not to bump into other people entering and leaving rooms. When you finally find your room, you enter to see a numerous reality links and a staff member sitting at a desk, giant wires protruding from his computer setup to the multiple reality links in the room. He gives you a smile and points at a reality link that's empty. The device looked like something straight from a sci-fi movie. Before you make a move to touch it, the staff member gets up and hands you quick pair of glasses with ear-buds hanging off of the ends.

"They help compliment the reality link," he explains as he presses a few buttons on the side of the reality link, opening the glass portion of the pod. "Just lean back into it and we'll do the rest."

Though somewhat skeptical, you listen to the man and you step in and lean back into the pod after putting on the glasses he gave you. The faint hum of the computers died out as the glass cover lowered back down.

"You ok in there?" a voice plays in your ear. You instantly recognize it as the staff member who helped you when you entered the room. "I'll set up the virtual link shortly. Your body might feel numb throughout, but you'll still be able to log out and regain full control. As a backup, I stay out here and monitor all players."

You reply with a quick "ok," not sure if he could actually hear you or now. After a few brief moments of silence, your glasses start to shine lightly and to the side of your head, a visor extends over your eyes, presumably from a slot hidden on the back of the pod. The side of the visor that you can see has a monitor on it and it starts to shine brightly, almost blinding.

You feel your body go numb and you start to sense that your body is picking up sensations that weren't in the reality link. Virtual reality set in as the bright light faded. You open your eyes slowly to be met with a dark blue velvet room, full of computer servers to both sides. You are sitting in a chair, made of the same soft velvet.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," an eerie voice coming from an old looking man says, "And welcome to Persona: Immersion. I am Igor and I am pleased to meet you."

Igor waves his hand and a light blue transparent screen appears in front of you. On it are blank fields that ask you for information.

"We are shaped by what we perceive ourselves as. What do you perceive yourself as, my dear guest? Answer and go forth on your journey, wherever it may take you. We shall meet again," Igor says as the Velvet Room around you, and him along with it, fade away to black.

It's only you, the chair you're sitting in, and the small screen in front of you. You grab a corner and pull at it, noting that it was just like a window on a computer, stretching and shrinking at your command. You tap on of the blank fields and a virtual keyboard, again tinted with a transparent light blue, appears in front of you. It didn't look like you were getting out of the area until you filled in the info.

That feeling of excitement rose again as you knew that this was the only step between you and the world of Immersion.

* * *

**Hope you're as hyped for this story as I am! I can't wait to see what kind of cast the awesome readers of the Persona fandom give me!**

**This fanfic receives characters through PM ONLY. **

**The OC form is on my profile page. The main reason is because a year or two back, Pokémon OC stories got taken down because OC forms boosted review counts, among other reasons. As such, even if the Persona fandom isn't quite as strictly moderated, I try to keep it in habit to do it the "right" way. **

**A few notes. If you didn't notice, this story takes place in the P3/P4 universe. You'll see this a lot more as a major plot mechanic as the story goes on. Along with that, expect the mature story-telling that Persona's known for. By that, I mean that you shouldn't expect everyone to be friends and for everyone to live all happy and good beats evil and characters to all live and all that jazz. Persona's amazing for having depth, and I'll try my hardest to respect that form of story-telling. **

**Review, send in your OCs, and laugh for no reason~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Message of the Day – Welcome to Persona: Immersion! The tutorial will teach you the basics of quests and combat. It will also show you the beginning of the epic story you're about to become a participant in. Please take what you learn to heart!**

* * *

Alice Long had been entranced with the notion of Immersion from the moment she had heard about it. Normally she didn't play many games, but the new idea of virtual reality had been too entrancing to pass up.

As she completed the form she received upon entering the Velvet Room, the dark room started to shine a bright white, slightly blinding Alice and forcing her to cover her eyes. When she opened them, she realized she was in a different room. She looked around for a minute, trying to figure out where she was and where she was supposed to go. The room, or maybe it was just a small apartment or something, had a gray carpet and light gray wall. A bed and sophisticated console were in the room, along with a closet as well. The console was stylized much like the screens she interacted with earlier. It was several large blue screens that seemingly hovered against the wall with a small transparent blue keyboard poking out. As Alice got closer to the screen, she noticed the top right had a mail symbol and that it was flashing. She pressed the screen lightly and another screen popped out.

_Admin: Welcome to Persona: Immersion!_

_We're pleased that you have decided to join us for this journey, Taiga. We know that things might be a little overwhelming currently, but this email is designed to help you get started. _

"I'm not quite overwhelmed yet, but let's hope we can get there," Alice frowned before continuing to read, taking a mental note to respond to her username, Taiga, in the future.

_Your room currently looks pretty bland. A bed, this console, and closet fill your room. The bed is just for looks, but let's go over the two other things, shall we?_

"What's the point of having a bed if it doesn't make a difference?" Taiga questioned out loud.

_This console will handle a myriad of functions, from handling emails to helping you organize clubs and keep track of events. You'll be receiving a several devices as you progress, but this is a console you can use in the comfort of your own room._

"I can't tell why anyone would want to stay cooped up in here," Taiga scoffed lightly.

_We should take this moment to mention there are special vendors in the open world that sell tickets to have your room instantly remodeled. The first one is on us! _

"…shut up," Taiga sneered jokingly at the instant answer.

_You'll figure out more about the consoles features as you play. Let's move on to the closet. We want out players to express their own personal tastes. Armor doesn't exist in the form of a metal suit, but rather, your physical prowess and health are linked to your Persona. This allows you to wear exactly what you want. At the start of the game, the clothes you have in real life are automatically scanned, becoming the first items of your virtual wardrobe. When you enter your closet, screens will appear around you in the lighted room. Simply click the appropriate commands, and your clothes will digitally fit around you instantly. Simple!_

_This concludes the quick tour of your room. When you leave it, you'll be greeted by a small hallway leading to an elevator. The elevator will lead you to the Velvet Station. From there, your journey shall start in full force. _

_Immerse your soul._

Taiga closed the screen and walked towards the closet. It was a fairly normal door, a stark contrast to the futuristic console to her left. It was just a small little room with no clothes. As a matter of fact, the only thing in the room was a mirror. The minute she stepped in, however, small transparent screens appeared all around her. The screens contained lists, or at least would have contained lists if Taiga had bought clothes already. Instead, only pictures of the clothes she was wearing were shown under the appropriate lists. At least there was a mirror. Taiga looked at herself carefully to make sure she resembled her real life looks. Her wavy dark brown hair was intact in her bob cut style. She'd kept her bangs pinned back today, though sometime she would just wear a headband. Did people sweat in Immersion? It did advertise real senses…

Could it detect pain, too?

Taiga shook the thought from her mind as she looked at her black pants, perfectly transferred along with her magenta blouse with ballet flats. A gray blazer with silver streaks across it finished her attire, complementing her tan skin and brown eyes.

"It really is seamless," Taiga whispered to herself as she walked out of the room, the screens disappearing behind her as she did. After a quick scan of the room, Taiga was content to leave the room seeing that nothing had changed. She left the room, a mechanical sliding door marking her exit with a faint "swoosh." The hallway outside of her room turned right as soon as she walked out, with an elevator on the other end of the dead end.

Taiga got in the elevator instantly taking note of the inside of the elevator being very fancy, even having a glass ceiling and ornate walls. The control panel on it had a small console with only one option. She promptly pressed "Velvet Station" on the console and after a familiar elevator "ping," the she felt the elevator start to descend.

_You who have decided to partake in this journey…_

Taiga's eyes widened as the unknown voice, deep and calming yet demanding, pierced her mind. She looked around quickly for the source.

…_however difficult it may be, you can and must persevere. Immerse your soul, and unlock your potential, child of man._

The lights in the elevator started to dim before going out completely. Taiga reached out to try and find a wall, wanting to brace herself just in case something even worse happened. She could feel that the elevator had stopped moving at this point. Was she trapped? It seemed way too scripted to be a simple glitch, so she didn't log out immediately.

The lights stayed out for a few more seconds before Taiga began to hear a light hum accompanied by a blue light starting to form in the middle of the dark elevator.

"What's this? Glasses?" Taiga asked as she moved closer to the light, seeing a pair of glasses floating. The glasses had a gray frame but looked otherwise unremarkable.

That is, they seemed unremarkable until Taiga actually put on the glasses. Instantly, the word "Immersion" was strewn across Taiga's vision. The glasses were acting like a heads up display.

_Your journey begins now, child of man. Do not falter._

The words on Taiga's glasses faded away as the lights turned back on in the elevator. A moment later, Taiga felt the elevator moving once again.

_Entering Group Phase,_ appeared over Taiga's vision as she felt the elevator stopped. Taiga braced for the unexpected as the doors slowly slid open. Carefully, Taiga walked out of the elevator to see a spacious subway station. She had walked out of an elevator on a raised archway, so looking down she could see most of the subway. The entire place glowed with the same light intensity of the Velvet Room. The walls were ornate, almost looking like the inside of a mansion rather than the inside of a subway. Taiga looked down to the blue velvet monorail at the bottom of the large archway. Her eyes followed the tracks to a seemingly dark nothingness.

"I'm willing to bet that's another loading screen," Taiga mused to herself. Just as Taiga was about to move down towards it, she heard a familiar "ding" sounds. A sound that was just like the elevator she had just left. She quickly turned around to the elevator to see another person walk out of it.

"That…was freaky," the guy said immediately, taking off his glasses and looking at them from various angles before putting them back on. "Who're you?"

Taiga was about to ask the same thing before she noticed words appearing on the top right of her glasses.

"Shotsujin…I'm assuming that's your username?" Taiga asked the stranger.

"And I'm guessing you're Taiga," Shotsujin replied. "I'm also assuming that since you're wearing the same glasses I am, you went through that weird elevator scene too?"

"The one where that weird voice started speaking to you and these glasses show up?"

"The same one, then," Shotsujin replied before walking off to the side and looking over the Velvet Subway. Taiga took the time to look over the player. He didn't seem too dangerous. With Immersion being a game with no real life consequences, she was somewhat worried that people would be overly aggressive or something. Shotsujin just seemed laid back overall. Taiga would still be careful, though, even though they hadn't received weapons yet. Shotsujin's regular clothes weren't too peculiar, consisting of a gray hoodie paired with some black cargo pants and white sneakers. The part that intrigued Taiga was his futuristic headphones.

"So I guess the reason you're here is because the HUD displayed 'Group Phase,'" Shotsujin said as he turned back to Taiga. "I'd be willing to be that this is a scene that's just isolated to the two of us."

"Considering that this game has such a large number of people playing it and we're the only ones here after the opening sequence, I think you're right," Taiga said with a slight annoyed tone. All and all, it was kind of obvious, Taiga thought.

"No need to be hos-wait, do you hear that?" Shotsujin started but quickly put a finger on his glasses arm.

Taiga instantly started to hear noise from what sounded like her glasses. She immediately put pressed the arm against head to try and hear it better.

"_I repeat! Respond!" _

"I hear ya!" Shotsujin smirked as he shouted to the voice over the "radio."

"_I'm a Dispatcher from HQ. It looks like you guys are stuck in the Velvet Station…normally it's full of other Persona users but…it looks like something is wrong."_

"This sounds scripted. I bet we could say anything and she'd just continue," Taiga sighed.

"_You both are new, right? I think that the elevator from your rooms took you to a deeper sub-level of the station."_

"Told you," Taiga smirked.

"It's not like I was arguing against it," Shotsujin frowned. "Besides, to enjoy this kind of thing, you've got to play along."

Taiga smirked again. "If you want to get somewhere, even in just a game, you've got to be practical about it."

"_I know you guys are new, but we need help at Iwotodai City. You need to find a way to get here as soon as possible. You've got two choices. You can go on the monorail in front of you together, or you can split up and try to find another route. I'll understand if you don't trust each other, so I'm willing to help you find a way solo if you just take the elevator down to a lower level."_

"That's…a surprising level of insight from the developers," Taiga mused aloud.

"I see what you mean. Normally, I'm more of a loner myself. I'd hate to be absolutely forced to team up with someone," Shotsujin added, making sure that Taiga didn't think he was an idiot. It seemed somewhat pointless to him, though. He already assumed she probably looked down on others. On the other hand, maybe she was just really analytical. What she said earlier supported that better. Shotsujin decided to just classify her by what she said earlier. Taiga was probably someone who just cared about the "practical" side of things. That didn't necessarily make her a bad person.

But what if she was?

"I think I'm going to go this solo," he said before starting to walk back to the elevator.

Taiga narrowed her eyes slightly. "I don't really need you to be my friend or for us to trust each other, but the Dispatcher said that the reason we're down her alone is because of a problem. Problems don't just happen, especially scripted problems in video games. I think it'd be best for us to stick together."

Shotsujin frowned to himself before putting on a smile and turning to her. She was using him, now? No. They were using each other. "You raise a fine point, Taiga. Let's go."

The pair walked down the stairs to the monorail before the static noise played from their glasses again.

"_Normally we'd give you an opportunity to customize your equipment in a room at the regular floor of the Velvet Station, but it looks like you'll just have to do that at Iwotodai's HQ. I think I can direct you to a room on the train with the weapons you requested. We keep a small armory in the back of our monorails in case of an attack."_

"You had to pick a weapon when you filled out the info in the Velvet Room too, right?" Shotsujin gave a small chuckle. Taiga simply nodded. "Just imagine. Someone sets their weapon as a damn rocket launcher. There's going to be a convenient rocket launcher in a box or something."

Shotsujin laughed at his own joke. Taiga almost laughed. _Almost._ At the very least, she did give a small smile.

"How's that even work, by the way," Taiga asked. "Isn't there balance in the weapons or something?"

"From what I've heard, the game balances things out. Expect something like a rocket launcher to have some pretty serious cons. I'd imagine most people are picking simpler things."

"_You should be able to break into the door behind the monorail. I'll keep you updated. Good luck, team," _the Dispatch said through the "radio." Taiga and Shotsujin walked over towards the back-end of the monorail. Taiga took the moment to look at just how long the monorail was. Her eyes tried to follow the train to its front, but the length of the train quickly disappeared into a tunnel.

"Wait…what's this?" Taiga said with a bit of a surprised tone as they reached the back end of the monorail. Instead of the door she expected to find, there was a red and black vortex that was continuously spinning with a block-like pattern.

"Probably means we're entering a new area," Shotsujin responded as he jumped up into the portal.

"W-Wait a second!" Taiga shouted as her partner jumped in before reluctantly jumping up into the portal herself. As she jumped in she shut her eyes from the intense colors before finally feeling herself land. She slowly opened her eyes to the scene of a very spacious, though dark, room. The room was only illuminated by a light blue velvet glow. Looking around, she could recognize it as the back cargo hold of a train, though much larger than a normal train would be. Important looking metal cases were strewn about randomly, giving the sense that the train had been ransacked. Taiga noticed Shotsujin opening one of the cases.

"Your glasses should have one of the cases outlined," Shotsujin said without looking up knife he'd just pulled out of the case. Taiga looked around before finding a long and thin case in the corner with a light white outline around it. She moved over to open it before finding a spear. It was very simple and black in color while at the same time having an elegant steel tip. Taiga looked at Shotsujin's knife which had much of the same sleek design.

"I'm hoping that I'll get some kind of magic power eventually and focus on that instead of physical stuff," Shotsujin explained when he noticed Taiga's spear and compared it to his knife.

"Persona…" Taiga muttered to herself. Personae were the main plot point and selling point of Immersion, so it was weird that she didn't know much about them in general. She guessed they would find out about them soon.

"_This is HQ to team. Can you read?" _the Dispatcher called out to the two teammates.

"Here we go with more scripted bullshit," Shotsujin smirked as he eyed his knife and the door. The door was a heavy looking technical one with a small console next to it. He had already guessed they would have to hack their way in or force their way through.

"_I've got more details for the mission. Originally you were supposed to just use that train to get to Iwotodai and the reason you're on it is purely by accident. It looks like that's not the case, though."_

"Really now?" Shotsujin said sarcastically.

"You're going to miss something important at this rate," Taiga scolded.

"_Apparently some intruders snuck into the Velvet Station and hacked the elevator to get to the floor you were on. You both left just before they covered their tracks and rewrote the elevator programs. I'm sending you mission details now. Good luck team," _the Dispatcher explained before the static cut off along with her voice. Nearly at the same time both players' visors started listing off mission details on the top right of their visor.

_Mission details:_

_[x] Collect a weapon._

_[ ] Make your way to the front of the train._

"Simple enough," Taiga said as she took a step forward. "Wait. We still can't get past the door, can we?"

"_Sorry about going dark for a second there. I've hacked into the train system. The door in front of you should be opening soon," _the Dispatcher said with near perfect timing as the two players got close to the door. The door slowly opened, revealing a room that looked much like a normal monorail car.

"You've noticed that this is more spacious than a normal train, right?" Shotsujin asked as he gripped his knife tight.

"Just large enough for a fight," Taiga said quietly as the two of them slowly made their way across the car.

"Nothing yet…" Shotsujin softly said as he reached the other end of the car. Taiga kept watching their backs, making sure nothing would sneak up on them.

Taiga heard Shotsujin start to open the door, followed by a loud, "who are you!" Taiga snapped around to see a figure in a black cloak with their head down.

"Is it just an NPC…?" Taiga asked, eying the still-standing figure. The second the figure looked up, though, Taiga's eyes widened. The face of the figure was purely black, save for two piercing red "eyes."

"Watch out!" Shotsujin shouted and the figure dashed towards them. The cloaked enemy raised its arm as it flew towards the two players, revealing a dark claw in place of its hand. Right as it was about to slash down on them, it came to a chillingly cold stop.

"Perrrrrssssssonaaaaaa…" it hissed in a raspy voice before retreating back to the other end of the car. The enemy simply waited at the end of the car, waiting for a move to be made instead of attacking.

"_Are you guys ok! I just hacked into the camera systems and saw that Shadow attack! Listen, it probably stopped because it sensed a Persona in you and fell back before you attacked it or something. It won't take long for it to decide to follow through with an attack. Shit…you guys haven't even gone through basic training, have you?"_

It was ironic that the Dispatcher mentioned basic training since that's what they were basically doing. It felt immersive, that's for sure.

"_I don't even think you guys can summon Persona yet…damn. We'll just have to start at the absolute basics. I'm only explaining this once, so listen carefully! You'll learn how to summon Persona at HQ, but for now just try and reach into your mind and focus on your hidden power. That power, Persona, can take a physical shape, but you need more training before that can happen. For now, you're just going to have to try to harness some of that _

"It's as simple as focusing? I suppose it's a game, after all…," Shotsujin commented, still griping his knife tightly and watching the Shadow for any sudden movements. Just watching it was creepy in of itself, considering he was looking straight at two pure red circles where eyes should have been. "Considering you look like you're a bit more interested in physical combat than I am, you go first. I insist."

Taiga laughed inwardly as she "focused." That's all the info she would be given? "Focusing" was a pretty abstract concept.

"W-Wait…this is a weird feeling," Taiga whispered, just within earshot of Shotsujin. Shotsujin watched intently and started focusing himself. He immediately understood what Taiga was talking about. He felt like he was tapping into some unseen force that was in him. His mind's eye painted him a faint picture, something he imagined was his Persona. He couldn't see it clearly, but he could surely feel it's power.

"Dieeeee…!" the Shadow hissed loudly, snapping both players to attention. Without hesitance it flew towards them, revealing its dark claw again.

"So that's how it works, huh? This is going to be a fun game!" Taiga smiled menacingly. "This game makes its own logic. Let's start learning it."

Light energy started to gather on the tip of Taiga's spear before she charged at the Shadow. The two powers clashed and the Shadow got blasted back to the other end of the car. It hissed out with an incredibly loud shrill before floating back up and staring them down.

"My Persona seems to like the Light attribute and this Shadow doesn't," Taiga said as she eyeballed her lighted spear. She turned to Shotsujin. "I'm sure you've got it by now."

"Of course," he replied coolly. "My Persona's a Fire and Wind type. If this thing is weak to Light, then I don't really see Fire or Wind attacks having a positive or negative effect."

"Great, you understand how games work," Taiga replied with the same sarcastic tone Shotsujin used on the Dispatcher. "Hurry up and finish it before it mindlessly charges us again."

"So bossy…," Shotsujin deadpanned before looking at his opponent. He knew he still was at a disadvantage in a physical fight. Was it a physical fight, though? Elemental weapon infusion…Shotsujin thought of the endless possibilities that could be used with that alone, not to mention he'd eventually become even more powerful after he learned how to harness the source of the power, his Persona. No…he wasn't at a disadvantage. Even with just a knife.

For once, he was in control.

"Die!" Shotsujin shouted, his knife lighting up with an intense fire. He tossed it straight at the Shadow, his Wind skills pushing it even faster and straight. The knife flew through the Shadow and before either player could blink the Shadow has exploded into a black ichor.

"Good job," Taiga smirked as she looked up to the mission details. "The mission's still the same. Let's keep going."

Shotsujin took a second to compose himself before wordlessly following Taiga. When they reached the end of the car, he dislodged his knife, making sure to take a good notice at the melted steel around the landing point. The two continued to run through the train. The run was rather smooth and they finally noticed above the doors a "5" or a "4" to designate what car they were on.

"Car Two…and there's no sign of the enemy," Taiga remarked as the braced themselves to the sides of the connecting door. "Either it's going to be Car One or it's going to be the train's cabin. I'm not sure how the numbering works."

"Well, Iwatodai is a Japanese city, so the numbering would be Japanese, naturally, and…dammit. I have no idea what train number Japan would use," Shotsujin facepalmed lightly at his almost complete logic chain.

"Not exactly common knowledge," Taiga gave a light smile before placing her hand on the door's handle. After an exchanging of nods with her teammate, Taiga opened the door and the two players rushed in.

"W-What's this?" Taiga gasped as she looked at this end of the cart. Arcane markings lined a bleak black portal that lined the back wall.

"_Team! You're approaching the end of the Velvet Station line! Look, I can't explain much, but you can't let that train reach the connectors. The connectors determine what city or location the monorail's going to go towards. I can't tell you where the Shadow's plan to take this train, but you can't allow it. Get past that portal and get that train moving towards Iwatodai!"_

"Um. How the hell do we do that?" Shotsujin asked turning to Taiga.

"So you're the ones who have snuck aboard our…present," a chilly and deep voice said. Both players snapped their attention to the portal to see a man wearing the same cloak the Shadow was wearing walk out. This one was un-hooded however. He had the same red eyes as the Shadow before him, though they were just red in the iris rather than red circles. His face looked…maniacal. Evil. His hair complimented it, being pure black and randomly spiked an inch or two up. Even though it was just a game, Taiga was a bit shaken. She watched a lot of cop dramas. Criminals like that were often at least often showed emotion and remorse, even while committing a crime. This guy didn't have that.

"The final boss making an appearance just in time," Shotsujin said as he pulled out his knife and instantly set a fire on it.

"No, don't!" Taiga shouted, but it was too late. Shotsujin threw the knife at the man. The man didn't even flinch as his rose his hand and caught the knife, extinguishing the blade and tossing it to the side.

"Tsk tsk tsk…not yet," the man grinned. That's when Taiga really started to get a sinking feeling. This guy, who was presumably an NPC, had a personality.

"I-Is this guy actually an NPC?" Shotsujin asked, hands shaking at being defenseless.

"Neither of you can summon a Persona yet, can you? Of course not…you're not soldiers. You're just a part of that limping alliance of Persona users who go around killing Shadows as if that would accomplish anything." The man started walking towards them slowly. The car was just as spacious and large as the rest of them, making his slow walk towards them look eternal.

"Do you adaptively respond to players?" Taiga asked, partly out of genuine curiosity and partly trying to stall for time. Her eyes scanned the room. No way out. The portal wasn't closing either. Was fighting this guy their only option?

"As much as any human would," the man responded. Taiga confirmed what she thought. NPCs in this game could adaptively gain personalities as more and more players talked to them. It was most likely that and a very strong responsive algorithm.

Shotsujin, in the meantime, was trying to find a way to get to his knife. It was resting by the portal, but there was no way he was getting past the enemy.

"Remember this, child of man," the enemy said as he stopped about halfway to them. "Your days are numbers on this planet, and it won't be the 'forces of evil' that will end you as you believe. You shall end your own miserable lives."

"Then what's the point of doing anything? I mean, I'm assuming that portal of yours is going to be a portal for Shadows to invade wherever this train is going, right?" Taiga asked after deducing all of the info she'd known.

"Good deduction, madam!" the man clapped. "The reason I'm here is because when the world falls, I'm not going to die. In fact, with the powers that Shadows give me, I'll transcend what I've already become!"

"This is dragging on," Taiga breathed hard. She hadn't even done anything physically exerting, but just being in the presence of this guy seemed to tire her out. She'd have to make a move soon.

"Then I'll end it," the enemy replied as he held his hand in the air and a sword appeared out of thin air. It looked like a normal enough sword, outside of the dark energy radiating out of its blade. Totally normal.

A light beep played in both players' ears. Immediately, four crosshairs appeared on four magic circles on the portal behind the man. The mission details also updated.

_Mission details:_

_[x] Collect a weapon._

_[x] Make your way to the front of the train._

_[ ] Destroy the portal to force the mysterious man to retreat._

Taiga looked to Shotsujin. Her partner was still shaken, but at least he could also see that there was a plan. Once again, they both nodded, knowing exactly what needed to be done.

"What's your name?" Taiga asked.

"My name? That's none of you-" Taiga didn't even let him finish his sentence before changing him with her light-infused spear. Taiga didn't relent, continuously stabbing even though her attempts were constantly blocked and dodged.

"Enough!" the man shouted at he held his blade in the air. Taiga found a chance to attack and aimed right for his head. Right as she was about to land, a barrier stopped her attack. A maniacal smiled formed again on the man as he brought his sword down. Taiga stepped back, but dark energy blasted out from where his sword struck, slamming Taiga back to the end of the car.

"You're done!" a shout came from the opposite side of the car. Everyone turned around to see Shotsujin stabbing the final magic circle. The portal began to arc with purple lightning, looking as if it was about to collapse on itself.

"Why you little…," the man shouted angrily. "That's my only way out! I'll remember this!"

The man sprinted straight past Shotsujin into the portal before it closed. When the portal did close, the door to the cabin was revealed behind it.

"T-That was insane," Taiga collapsed to her knees. "You don't feel pain, per se, but it's a pretty exhausting sense at any rate. Shotsujin only nodded before heading into the cabin and activating the console. The console did its work, showing data that suggested the train was now heading for Iwatodai rather than its original destination. Taiga stayed outside, still tired out from the fight. She would be stronger than she was now the next time she would meet him, but that didn't change the psychological impact. Maybe she wouldn't be as scared the next time she fought the man since she would be stronger.

At the moment, though, who cared? She spent the energy she still had looking at the one message flashing green on the top left of her display.

_Mission Complete._

* * *

**Wow. That was a long scene. It was definitely way longer than intended, for sure! I don't think I'll make many chapters this long, but I needed to show a lot of the mechanics of the world your OCs are going into. **

**A few things from the OC forms, I should mention. **

**Your skills aren't really defined just by what you put. Some of you went into detail, and that's fine, but I'm mainly using it as a sort of guide for what characters are going to build into. Not saying I won't use your suggestions, but there's going to be some things that they'll get that are unique. **

**As you've probably noticed, characters have a display and they'll be able to change it. For the most part, I'm going to play this by your characters appearance. Some will use glasses, others will use contacts or other means for heads-up displays. If you really want something specific, go ahead and let me know in a PM. I have updated the OC form to reflect the display option for you people still planning on submitting an OC.**

**I've noticed something about this OC fics on this fandom. A lot of the times people use the OCs they receive as members for a SEES/Investigation Squad like group where the OCs are all main characters. In this story, the main role of OCs is to show the events that are happening around them. There will be characters you see more often than others, and not all characters will have the same prominence as others, but with story-telling like this, I hope to have no real restriction on the number of OCs or restrictions due to some pre-defined role that's given out.**

**Oh, one more thing. Naming in this fic is mainly going by usernames unless the real name is brought up somehow. I'll give OC credit depending on what the reader knows.**

**That's a pretty long winded A/N. Sorry about that…if you have any questions, just PM me and let me know. Until next time!**

**OC Credits:**

**Alice Long / Taiga – MrMissMrs Random**

**Shotsujin – Laziness-Prevails**


	3. Chapter 3

**Message of the Day – Network HQ is your hub for your mission in Iwatodai City. It contains a teleporter to your room, help desks for support, recreation for friends, rented floors for your guild, among other things! It's also a short walk to the Metro's Central Station! **

* * *

Iwatodai. A fairly large city in Japan. Most players wouldn't really know that, though. Some might not even think it was a real city. As a matter of fact, the only reason Joseph English knew about the city was because of the mysterious "Apathy Syndrome" case about 2 years ago. People said it was because of stress or something, but Joseph didn't really believe it. Despite his doubts, however, he never really figured out the cause. It suddenly was "cured," with no new cases. Any independent research he did turned out to be useless. No one knew why the mysterious disease suddenly stopped. A plot pulled straight from a video game, Joseph thought as he discarded his efforts for more important things.

Oh how irony works that he gets brought to Iwatodai two years later through a video game. Of course, real life Iwatodai probably didn't look quite as futuristic as it did out of the monorail cabin's front window. He recognized parts of it from the pictures he saw, but there were definitely many more tall buildings along with what looked like a pretty elaborate series of monorails moving around them. Rather than the slightly large city he remembered, he saw a sprawling metropolis fit for tens of thousands (if not more) players. He could also tell from where he was that some areas would be more crowded and futuristic while other areas he scanned with his eyes seemed less than impressive. A good mix of variety for any of the game's interested players.

"What do you think, Aimless?" his partner to the right said. Just like when they first met in the Velvet Station, Oracion had his silly grin on. He had pale-blonde shaggy hair with blueish-grey eyes and tanned skin. And being six feet tall and about four inches, he towered over his partner. For his clothing, he wore a black t-shirt with a gray jacket, dark-wash jeans, white tennis shoes, and two silver studs in his right ear. Especially considering the height difference, he looked very unique compared to Joseph. Joseph had black hair and pale green eyes, with only an average height of about five feet and ten inches with a lean build. He wore a simple white t-shirt as well, under a light blue shirt-jacket with blue jeans.

"I dunno, Oracion," Joseph, or rather, Aimless Hero smiled back. "I studied this city a bit. It looks a lot more futuristic here, but there's no reason to complain about that."

"I know I told you to call me Ace, but it looks like I should just get used to people calling me Oracion," Oracion laughed.

"Pfft. When you start making more friends, they'll give you a nickname." Aimless carried a silly grin, much like his partner. He noted the train getting closer and closer to the city. They had originally approached from below ground, making a sudden transition from the ornate halls of the Velvet Station (which by the way, runs FOREVER when faced against a crazy psycho Shadow man thing) straight unto a road that was on the side of a hilly mountain. The view was pretty breathtaking, and looking out of the right said of the window, both players could see the city in all of its futuristic glory.

"At any rate, I'm glad I got this thing to work," Oracion said as he set his staff leaned on the control panel.

"It was an epic fight!" Aimless gave a cheesy grin. "I thought that weird dude had us for sure."

"Well, he had you. You've gotta be more aggressive with that spear." Oracion mirrored his partner's grin. "It's a good thing I figured out how to use these orbs."

The two players looked at Oracion's staff. Both sides had one dark blue orb firmly attached. Mid-fight, after Oracion was able to tap into his Persona's power, the orbs came to life and detached, magically hovering around the staff. Aimless held off the mysterious attacker while Oracion skillfully launched the orbs and broke the magic circle.

"And you think you can set them on fire?" Aimless asked as the train entered a dark tunnel. Back in the dark, the train's cabin revealed soft blue Velvet lighting once more.

"And light," Oracion demonstrated as he picked up the staff and magically infused the orbs, detaching themselves and illuminating the cabin.

As the train exited the tunnel, Aimless couldn't help but laugh some more. "Way to time the dramatic lighting."

The two continued to laugh and make jokes as the train got nearer and nearer to the city. It has just made the turn to start running towards the city rather than perpendicular to it.

"_Dispatch to team. Mission Complete. Well done!" _the radio broke in with light static. _"The train you're on is going to stop below ground under the Network HQ. Head up to the First Floor lobby as soon as you can. Good work today. HQ out."_

At nearly the same time as the transmission was cut off, the monorail entered the city. Tall buildings surrounded the two, though at some points they were cut off by smaller neighborhoods. Several times the monorail even cut through sections of buildings.

"It really is hard to believe it's just a game…" Aimless said with a mix of both happiness and a bit of solemnness.

"The part we're playing might just be a game, but the people you interact with are friends. The people are real and the friendships are real," Oracion warmly smiled. As the train descended back underground and slowed down, Oracion held his fingers together and started extending them, bringing up a console. "Let's make this friendship official."

Aimless smiled at Oracion's contagious attitude before opening his console as well. _Friend Request received: Oracion._

"And that means we can message each other at any point?" Aimless asked.

"I'd hope so. I'd hate to lose track of such a great partner!" Oracion replied with the same grin as the train moved to a stop. The two of them left the cabin and walked through a side door and unto a small platform.

"A far cry from futuristic," Aimless commented as he looked around. The platform looked like an old normal subway.

"Well, we are on the bottom floor and we did just get off a train that's technically offpath," Oracion pointed out. "I think we're in the large building I saw right before the train ducked underground."

The two players moved towards an elevator, and as soon as they called for it, the elevator's door opened to reveal a blue vortex with black stripes running spiraling in it.

"This vortex isn't too much different than the first one we went through, save for it being blue instead of red," Aimless pointed out.

"It probably means the mission's over!" Oracion face gleamed. "Let's go!"

Aimless sighed, though he caught the same infectious smile Oracion had as they both entered the vortex and found themselves in an elevator. Behind them, the vortex faded away and revealed a normal elevator door that was closed behind them. Almost immediately "_Mission Complete,_" flashed across the pair's glasses. Aimless and Oracion, without missing a beat, fistbumped each other as a console, just like the one on the Velvet Station elevator, appeared.

_Network HQ: Please select a destination._

_Hidden Underground Station (Current Location)_

_First Floor (Lobby)_

Aimless promptly pushed the button for the first floor lobby and the elevator responded just as fast and started to move up.

"How do you plan on playing this game, Oracion?" Aimless asked while the players were waiting.

"Well, I don't know how the quests are structured yet, so I don't know what I'll do in that regard. I think I'm going to build myself into some kinda mega-nuker guy wizard thing," Oracion grinned. "I just…I can feel my Persona resonates with that kinda idea, at least."

"You can 'feel' your Persona?" Aimless raised an eyebrow. "What a natural. You should really focus on that, since that's what you think you'll be good at. Don't look back and don't regret it. Be the best mega-nuker wizard thing you can."

Oracion put his arm around Aimless' shoulder. "What about you, bud?"

"No clue whatsoever," Aimless sighed lightly. It had been a problem Aimless had dealt with his whole life. He often moved without any regards to the future. It bothered him slightly that even in a game, the problem reared its ugly head once again.

Oracion simply smiled and patted his back as the elevator started to open. "I'm sure you'll find an an..an…an answer…"

Oracion and Aimless both kept their mouths agape as the elevator opened up to them. In front of them was a futuristic lobby with a huge circular help desk in the middle. The walls were designed modern and intricately, clear glass making up most of it. A large portion of the middle of the room was defined by a large black tech-looking pillar with a large help desk situated at the bottom. Several dozen stations with attendants circled the pillar while players scurried to and away from them looking for all sorts of various information. Above them were several TV, displaying different messages. Those screens were everywhere, not just on the pillar but on walls and several smaller pillars next to tables. They told of the news, weather, welcoming players, and displaying all kinds of information, both from the game and even real life info from various different countries. The interior could be described in short as a very sophisticated mall or sorts, though more gears towards an organization. Several spiral staircases spun up to multiple floors before cutting off about five stories up, though the building reached taller.

Aimless still had his mouth wide-open as Oracion opened his personal console and scrolled through a few menus.

"Apparently we're in the Network HQ's Atrium," Oracion said as he showed Aimless the screen that displayed _"Location: Network HQ (Atrium – Floors 1-5)"_

The two played slowly walked out of the elevator, noticing players leaving elevators to both sides of them. Apparently a large portion of the wall they were next to held about a dozen elevators, expelling players who were traveling the building or completing their first mission as well.

"Looks like we can't go back that way," Aimless pointed out as he turned around. A red translucent diamond, looking much like their consoles albeit the color, appeared, with a lighter red stripe running through containing a dark red '_LOCKED._'

"It just means we have to keep moving forward…to somewhere," Oracion smirked.

Aimless looked around for a bit at the players who were constantly leaving the elevators, including the one they just walked out of. Some pairs of players were already laughing together as they walked out. Others simply walked in different directions as soon as they left. Some walked out alone, most likely opting for the single player mission rather than going with a teammate. Other players in the lobby were walking up stairs right though "LOCKED" signs, meaning they were individual to players rather than universal blocks.

"The guys who're leaving the elevators alone are either going to be really dedicated or good at this game, or they're going to fall hard and often," Aimless observed. "That's rough considering you can't relog for an entire week when you die."

"…wait, what?" Even Oracion could only follow up with a nervous laugh after catching what Aimless said. "You can't relog when you die for-"

"One week. A friend told me earlier. Comically, I might add. It's apparently encouragement for players to not die. I feel for the poor souls who got taken out on the tutorial mission," Aimless laughed as a mission light started blinking on the top right of his display.

"Speaking of missions…this one says that we have to go to the help desk," Oracion said as he looked saw a light white outline around the help desk.

"Welcome to Network HQ!" an attendant said as the two players walked up to the desk (after a short line.) She had short brown hair and wore an attendant's dress, simple and clean, that had the same velvet hue as many things in the game. "Let's see…Aimless Hero and Oracion."

"You have no glasses on. How can you see our names? Is there some sort of scanner or something?" Oracion looked around while Aimless nodded at the attendant.

"Nope! Contacts," the attendant responded. "You can get your display to show up to you in all kinds of different ways once you get refitted in a few quests. We never want to limit your appearance."

"I'm more surprised you're not an NPC," Aimless smiled. "You guys aren't getting rushed?"

"We were a little earlier in the day, but there are a couple dozen of use stationed around this pillar, and a lot of players don't wanna converse. They just want to get out and explore," she sighed lightly.

"What a shame. I think it's pretty cool that there's a staff like this for the game," Oracion mentioned.

"Right," the attendant said with a bit of pride evident. "Well, moving on, it's my job to answer any questions and tell you where to go next. Any questions first?"

"Aren't you breaking the fourth wall, sort of?" Aimless asked first. "I mean, you've openly said this is a game though you're an attendant."

"Some NPC's will refer to this as a game and others won't. In the end, however, this is a whole different world, and missions are dynamically updating. Very few people know what's going on in the world, so we're just as in the dark as the players a lot of times. We're just doing our job!"

"What do you mean dynamically updating?" Oracion then asked, interested since he mentioned the way quests would run earlier.

"Like I said, this world is an active and changing world. This won't happen, but I'll use it as an example," the attendant said. "Let's say something falls out of the sky into a building. You might immediately receive a mission that says 'Investigate the fallen object' or something. It even goes as far as to interacting with other players depending on the situation. It depends on your choices, your role, among other things. It's a pretty complex algorithm I can't even begin to describe. Of course, there's still a main story, but even that can change depending on circumstance. Remember that mysterious man from earlier? You wouldn't respawn at the beginning of the game again, but instead that man might have finished his objective if he had killed you. I wonder what kind of quests you would be receive then? By the way, if you die in Immersion, you're not allowed to log back in for an entire week."

"I've been told," Aimless replied. He up looked to Oracion and nodded, receiving a nod back. "I think we're ready for the mission."

"Very well. Let's unlock your Persona," the attendant smiled wildly. "It's an amazing experience. I'm not sure how they do it, but you'll learn soon enough. Here's the quest. You should be able to access a majority of the Atrium and a few more floors. Your quest will be on the fiftieth floor out of one-hundred. Good luck, players~"

* * *

**First and foremost, I'm sorry for taking so long to get out such a small chapter. I'll repeat that my last chapter was abnormal for me in length, but at 2500~ words, this one's on the small side. The main reason the chapter ended up short was because I normally have at least two major scenes in a chapter. This time around, I've only got one because I was absolutely stumped at how to present the actual Persona reveals in this story. After about two weeks and four rewrites, I've decided to publish what I've got and dedicate the next chapter to the concept of Personae in Immersion. **

**Thank you for waiting. I know the contents not as good this time around, but thank you for sticking through with me! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! **

**OC Credits:**

**Aimless Hero (Joseph English) – Book Stanfield**

**Oracion (Ace D. Fair III) – MewStar0013 (Writer of **_**Persona: Symphonic Memories.**_** It's an extremely unique and creative OC adventure and one of my favorite fanfics in the fandom! Check it out!)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Message of the Day – Persona wielding is a very difficult task that is based on your mental willpower. Some Personae are like battle-companions. They're smaller, weaker, but much more versatile and easy to summon. Others are much more difficult to summon, requiring a lot of concentration before using! Change your fighting style accordingly! Visit the simulation rooms on floors seven through ten to practice.**

* * *

"Even something as simple as this is surreal," Carl "Zerez" Lloyd commented as the elevator opened to the 50th floor. In front of him was a classic café, with a multitude of players at simple yet fancy tables. "I guess you do get a sense of taste in this game."

"Taste" could be used very often when talking about the details in Immersion. For instance, the café itself was tasteful, with its typical quiet classy appearance. There were multiple sections to the café, all with tall ornate curved walls having draping flowers and greenery complementing them. Zerez figured he would probably come back to the area sometime, though dressed a little better than he was. It wasn't that he thought that his black jeans sporting black chains on them and his dragon-imprinted black shirt was particularly out of context to the café. I mean, you could be totally casual and still fit in perfectly. Even with his ring on his right finger and short brown hair above his black-framed glasses (covering very location appropriate hazel green eyes), he would decide to change his clothes simply because he wanted to challenge his creative mind to see if he could design something as simple as his clothing to match the scenery around him. Zerez wasn't into fashion, per se, as much as he was into exploring creativity, and in a world as intricate as Immersion, he could see himself doing that in ways he never imagined.

The con to this was that Zerez wasn't exactly…outgoing. He preferred to stay by himself and do his own thing, so maybe the café idea wasn't as good as Zerez had first imagined.

"Welcome to Chagall Café," an attendant standing behind a podium said to the player, as if the encounter with her was destined by the fact that Zerez was just thinking about keeping the quest quick and quiet. "Let's see some info…ok. You're just on your first quest. I'll explain some things to you about this floor."

"Please do," Zerez smiled regardless of his feelings. Being withdrawn didn't mean he had to be cold, of course.

The attendant gave a warm smile of her own before explaining, "This floor houses the Chagall Café, several quiet rooms for meditation, and a library sponsored by the Kirijo Group."

Zerez nodded as he looked out and viewed the café. Then interior looked much like classic cafés, albeit larger. A large portion wall near the serving counter opened out into a large hallway that hugged the large glass windows of the building. It gave a lot of natural light and atmosphere to the room, and Zerez assumed that would be the case for most of the floor.

"Now, please open your quest menu," the attendant asked. Zerez did so, opening it his personal console and checking on the quests tab. "From this point on, you're going to be able to manage what quests you're on, though you'll still receive cues from your visor."

"Speaking of which, when do I get to refit these?" Zerez said as he took off the glasses, taking a look at them. It wasn't that he didn't like the glasses. They just weren't _his _glasses.

"Your display? Hm…I think I've heard some of our customers say soon after your first mission you're free to go to a clothing customizer and refit your clothes and gear. Back on track, though, let me teach you something. Open the quest window for the quest you're on and press _'Track'_," the attendant explained, actually pulling out her own console and showing with a quest titled "Test."

Zerez looked at his quest menu. "Um…the bottom floor told me where the quest was, but didn't actually give me the quest."

The attendant scurried through her menus, pressing a series of buttons until the familiar red flashing signaled a received quest. "I forgot…sorry about that."

Zerez just nodded as he stared at the quest tilted "Releasing Potential" now on the list.

"Make it your active quest," the attendant said, pointing to a _"Make Active"_ option on the quest screen. Zerez did so and mission details started appearing on the top-left of his vizor.

_Releasing Potential_

_Mission Details: _

_[] Meet with a Persona trainer in one of the 50__th__ floor meditation rooms. _

Zerez followed the earlier instructions and pressed _"Track." _A light white ball appeared on his visor and shot out of the café, taking a sharp right and out of Zerez's vision.

"You should have seen a tracker fire out. It'll lead you to where you need to go," the attendant told Zerez as she closed her console. "Any questions?"

"Nope. Thanks for the help! I hope I didn't hold anyone behind…" Zerez said as he looked around, surprisingly seeing no one behind me. He took another look around and saw several other elevators with both regular and first quest players (obvious by the fumbling on their respective consoles) leaving other elevators around the café.

"Nope! We have many mo-"

"Noticed as soon as I said it," Zerez lightly facepalmed himself with a laugh as he started to walk away.

"Oh! One more thing!" The attendant grabbed Zerez's hand and guided it up the one of the glasses' arm. She guided him to press a button and the tracker fired out of his vision again. "Wanna know the cool part? There's two buttons on the sides of the default glasses. You can actually _will_ the functions of them. Call button? Just think about it and it's a call button."

"T-That's…actually amazing," Zerez blinked, his creative mind already thinking of the possibilities. "Thank you for everything…um…Lily?"

"I see you're still getting used to actually noticing the name tags on your display," the attendant giggled. "Off with you~"

Zerez laughed with her as he walked out of the café. As soon as he did walked out into the hallway, he stopped. In front of him was one of the outer walls of Network HQ. At fifty stories up, Zerez has an amazing view, being able to see out to the very outskirts. He immediately noticed two things. One, the buildings got shorter as you progressed away from the main HQ, with several noticeable exceptions. Future quest locations, most likely. Second, he noticed the sheer size of everything the buildings around him. It was by coincidence that he was able to see the outskirts of the city. From where he was standing, several large buildings obstructed his view. In reality, he was looking at the outskirts of the city through a narrow view between the cityscape. He looked up to the buildings close to HQ, seeing them cut off around…Zerez guessed it to be at least eighty floors. Network HQ had about one-hundred total, right? If the game's city was inspired by a real life city, either it was the most hidden technological wonder in the world, or the Immersion designers…spruced it up a bit. Zerez couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of the opportunity the art designers must have had creating just the city.

"Impressive, huh?" a voice snuck up beside him.

Zerez turned to his right to see a red-eyed girl slightly shorter than him with a short ponytail styling her auburn hair looking out on the city. "Sure."

"That's all?" The girl looked up to him with a puzzled look. "Most of the players I've talked to are still in awe the more they explore."

Zerez scratched his head. "S-Sorry…just trying to take it all in," he lied. In reality, he kinda just wanted to move on and play the game himself.

"I hear you. This view kinda sucks," the girl said, looking out to the same slightly blocked view as Zerez. Zerez took the time to notice what she was wearing. She wore a buttoned soft black trench-coat with blue jeans poking out of the bottom, brown leather shoes finishing off her simple attire. Most noticeably, though, were the red "Audio-Techinica" headphones half covered by the trench-coat collar, and the barrettes clipping her hair back forming the roman numeral XXII. Was there some significance to that? Zerez didn't know what it was, but most people aren't meticulous enough to do something subtle like that without a purpose or, conversely, dense enough to do it accidentally.

"You there, Zerez?" the girl waved her hand in front of Zerez. "You kinda spaced out…um…staring at me. A-Anyways…"

"N-No! Just thinking, is all. Those are pretty cool headphones," he stuttered, slightly embarrassed to find out he was staring.

"I agree!" the girl chirped back. "Me and my brother had the same pair of headphones our junior year of high school."

Had? Her usage of the word had could go several different ways, and Zerez didn't really want to explore any of them.

"Anyways, you should go to one of the higher floors one day. They have a much better view of the city! Floor 90 has the Sky Terrace. If you go outside, you'll notice a ring hanging around off of the side of the building. Not only does it coolly top of the pointed top of the HQ, but you can walk around inside it and the floor and most of the walls are glass!" the girl excitedly said as she talked more and more about it.

"That sounds cool and all, but I've got to finish this quest," Zerez said, keeping a smile the best he could. In all honesty, though, he was pretty interested in the view. "Nice to meet you…um…damn it. When you can just see someone's name, how can you introduce yourself normally?"

The girl giggled. "You're right. It does take away the entire point of introducing someone. Like, I could just straight up call you Zerez without ever meeting you before. One of those strange online MMO cultural things, I suppose."

"I suppose your right. At any rate, nice to meet you, Eurydice," Zerez said as he held his hand out. Eurydice shook it, following with a light bow.

"See you around," the girl said as she joyfully walked away. Zerez clicked his tracker. The ball flew in the opposite direction from where she was going, of course. He made his way across the floor, smiling at his prediction about the floors design and how it allowed for the natural light to make it feel more homely. That was a desirable theme with libraries and cafés, after all. Many twists and turns later, and Zerez found himself walking into an open door room with the large back wall lined with about two dozen doors. As players opened the doors, they revealed red vortexes rather than the inside of a room. It was a pretty large room, with at the very least one-hundred players filling the inside with chatter. The players were all either talking to groups of friends or rushing through the portals to enter a quest.

"So much for meditation rooms…" Zerez sighed, hoping it would be a bit more peaceful inside the rooms and that the vortex was soundproof. The room he soon entered was a basic square in shape, with the back wall opposite of the door being the wall-sized glass windows. In the center was an ornate blue circle with a mask inscribed on it. The mask was half light blue and half dark blue with a basic face's pattern on it. Behind the circle a multi-pointed star streaked around the background, finishing the pattern.

Aside from the mask, however, of special interest to Zerez was the girl standing across from him, though.

_Entering Group Phase_

"I was under the impression that this mission would be solo," the girl, appearing on Zerez's display as "Taiga" said.

"Oddly enough, so was I," Zerez retorted.

"Oh, don't get me wrong." Taiga raised her arms in a somewhat apologetic way. "I'm not offended by you being here or anything."

"I don't really care, I guess," Zerez replied, not really knowing what to say. "I've just been going along with things. I'm more interested just getting to a point where I go and do my own thing."

Taiga raised an eyebrow. "Then why play an online MMO? Not saying there's anything wrong with playing alone, of course. I mean, personally, I can imagine not wanting to play with children, but still. It's not unavoidable."

"And pass up on a creative landscape like this? It's…inspiring."

The two players stood in relative silence for another minute or two before Taiga spoke up again.

"It's odd. I don't see a mission objective," she commented, noting how her quest _Releasing Potential_ wasn't giving a bullet underneath for the next objective. The earlier one didn't mark itself as completed, but disappeared altogether.

"What could that m-" Zerez started but was cut off by an echoing clapping behind him. He noticed Taiga's expression go into shock as she instantly armed herself with a spear. He himself turned around and gave the same impression.

"Children of man, in search for a mask to protect them," the man from the train said to the two players. Zerez played through the single-player mission, finding himself battling through a train and having to nimbly evade the man and escape by disconnecting the train cars. If he had to evade him then, what would he do in a closed room with him? "But it's nothing but a mask, hiding your true feelings and ambitions."

"These meetings are getting eerily personal," Taiga muttered aloud.

"Ohoho! Then you'll be especially happy to hear that this meeting is especially personal, Taiga!"

Taiga's heart skipped a beat. She _knew _he could see her username, but hearing him actually _say _it? That was borderline insane coming from something that was supposed to be a simple learning AI.

"I'm here to give you both an option. I'll teach _one _of you personally how to use a Persona. Maybe even more than _just _how to summon a Persona! My time, however, can only be wasted on one of you, however. You have to eliminate the other player," he laughed, grinning with his familiar evil smile. As cliché as it was to call an evil character's smile…evil, it was much too fitting.

Zerez looked back to Taiga, who was gripping her spear with a little less conviction. He hesitantly summoned his naginata, a Japanese pole-sword like weapon, hoping that Taiga wouldn't assume he was out and ready to fight. Thankfully, she didn't attack, still looking as confused and hesitant as he did.

The black-robed man sighed. "I'll throw out an addendum, you cowards. Kill each other, or I'll kill you both."

"I-It's just a game," Taiga said hesitantly. She wanted to believe with all of her heart that there would be some loophole around the situation. She wanted to believe something that wasn't realistic. She didn't want to do the wrong thing and strike an actual person down for another sadistic man's pleasure, whether it was a game or not.

Zerez, on the other hand, was uncomfortable with the entire situation as well. He needed to move on, but the man called Taiga by her name when he was supposed to be just some generic part of the game. There was something…scary going on. Zerez was hesitant to make any motions, wanting Taiga to make the first move. He didn't particularly want to fight in the first place, but he didn't see another way out.

With a scoff, Taiga made her first move, dropping the spear to the ground.

"And your opponent disarms herself! Quite the devious move! Quickly, go for the kill before she triggers an ingenious tr-"

"Stop!" a girl from behind the man shouted, having burst in the room through the "LOCKED" door, seemingly not affecting her. With a giant war hammer, she slammed down towards the man, forcing him to cut off his speech and attempt to stop the hammer. He succeeded in his block, managing to do it with one hand even though her was bending back from the stress with his knees buckling.

"You bitch!" the man shouted as he pushed his hand up from his bent back position, pushing the girl and the hammer back before backing himself up to a corner. Taiga and Zerez retreated to the opposite empty back corners of the room, holding out their weapons pointed at the man as well. The girl, using the username "flower_bud," was back into a combat stance as well, gripping the heavy hammer with apparent ease. She work a science fiction inspirsed black and neon blue long sleeved jacket along with baggy grey shorts and combat boots.

"See, I don't even know how to reply to children like you who can't even come up with a name," the man snorted.

"'Flower' is fine. Remember it, since it's the last thing you'll hear for a while, Visum," the girl said in a quiet, serious matter. "Perso-"

Just as the girl was about to finish what she was saying, Visum summoned two sleek black swords in his hands and dashed at her.

Zerez through quick-thinking and sheer instinct did the same thing he did in the train tutorial mission to escape. He quickly channeled his Persona mentally and focused the energy to his naginata. With a downward swipe, he fired a small shockwave of fire at Visum. All in the matter of about two seconds, Visum had dived at Flower and quickly had to dodge to the side. Flower dodged in the opposite direction, now occupying the fourth corner of the room.

"_That was fast," _both Taiga and Flower thought, though Taiga didn't keep her eyes off of Visum.

"Hmph, a round well played," Visum frowned as a dark portal opened under him and he slowly sank into it.

"Hope I can do this as smoothly as you could, Shotsujin," Taiga said to herself as she took an opportunity to try and get one last attack in. Infusing her spear with light, though she didn't exactly know _how_ that would end up or if it would work the way she hoped, she tossed the spear forward at Visum. The spear didn't travel extremely fast or steadily, however, and Visum grabbed the spear and it passed his side and sunk into the ground with an eye-contact smirk towards the now extremely pissed off dark-brown haired spear-user.

* * *

"Come on! Give us some answers!" Taiga shouted.

"Wha-oh! S-Sorry…I kinda spaced out right there," Flower said nervously, "There's just a lot to think about…like what's going to happen when I get you to my superior."

Zerez just watched the two interact, noting Flower's nervousness and meekness. He tried not to show nervousness, but he was about as withdrawn as she was. Then again, the encounter with that Visum guy wasn't exactly a stress free encounter.

"To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to tell you and what I need to keep my mouth shut about," Flower said the elevator made a stop. The door opened to reveal a spacious room, lined with marble columns and a receptionist's desk towards the opposite wall. The ground had the same shiny gray marble as the pillars, though it was slightly darker to not match them, while the left wall had a hallway extending from it and the right wall revealed a windowed side wall of the building, giving a full, interrupted view of the city. Throughout the room, multiple players were scurrying about, some with consoles open and others chatting through headsets and other devices. Several of the players walked by the group as soon as they exited, leaving for whatever business they needed to conduct. Flower herself opened a console through a wrist mounted mini-computer and quickly sent a message. With a head motion, she beckoned the other two players to follow her.

Taiga and Zerez both nodded, following the strange girl through a series of hallways. The first thing Taiga noticed was how this floor looked much more professional than the others had so far. Not to say the others weren't professionally done, but this was more…business like. It even reminded her of a government building's interior.

"I'm assuming you guys aren't regular players," Taiga directed at Flower.

"Is it ok to tell her?" Flower muttered to herself quietly. Taiga raised an eyebrow, hearing nothing but a whisper.

"I'm also assuming you don't really know that much yourself," Taiga sighed, a small bit of annoyance evident.

Zerez walked behind the two in a relatively awkward silence. Flower reminded him of himself. She was slightly withdrawn unless spurred, though it seemed that she was a bit more spaced out. Overall, he figured she was probably hesitant to do most things unless she knew with certainty what she was supposed to do.

"I'm a moderator," Flower answered Taiga after another minute of walking. "We're here."

The three players approached a large metal door with an ornate series of symmetrical designs inscribed on it. Flower stopped and pressed a button into the console she brought up next to the door. After a few silent moments, the door slowly opened to reveal a very large room looking much like an important businessman's room, though as spacious as a small ballroom. A grand gold-rimmed red carpet rolled across the shining wooden floor, marking itself as the centerpiece for a left wall filled with books and a right wall housing a multitude of consoles. Everything from news to maps filled the information on the consoles with them all constantly moving around. In front of them, however, was a clean and orderly desk with a mysterious woman in the chair behind it.

Her face was covered by a velvet butterfly mask, covering her eyes and nose but not her mouth. Her hair was long and wavy and a slightly dark shade of red. She wore a large buttoned white fur coat, with nothing else being readily visible from her sitting pose.

"Thank you for coming so soon, Miss Lei," the woman said with a smile.

"Y-Yes," Flower gave a quick bow before edging on other players from behind to move forward while she stayed near the door.

"Let me set up some chairs," the woman said as she brought up her personal console and typed in a command, summoning two chairs in front of her desk. As the two players took their seats, she said, "I apologize for apparently wasting your time with this, but it is a serious matter. It appears you two have experienced the dynamic quest system of Immersion quite directly soon into your adventures."

Zerez wanted to say something. He had questions, such as "why couldn't he just go off and have fun his way" or "how is this game so well designed from an artistic point of view" or something. Something about the woman in front of the made him hesitant to say a word, though. This felt like way more than just a game he could leave at any time.

Another fact grabbed both players' attention. Neither one of them were able to see a username connected to the mysterious woman. Where it was supposed to be, it was just blank.

"What was really supposed to happen in that room?" Taiga asked immediately without hesitation.

The woman gave a coy smirk. "Let me introduce myself first. I am the Administrator."

"Is that related to the term 'Game Master' at all?" Taiga asked. She hadn't played many games, but she knew the basic terms she'd need to know to get around.

"I suppose you could say that I'm the head GM," the Administrator replied. "As for your earlier question, it's very simple. An attendant was supposed to talk to you and guide you through the process of summoning a Persona, though that could have ended in several different ways depending on your success."

"Our success?" Zerez questioned.

"Some can summon Personae easier than others. Regardless, you both have another situation entirely that we need to talk about," the Administrator frowned. "I brought you here because I wanted to let you know that Visum's appearance will have a far-reaching effect on your gameplay from this point on. Whether it's negative or positive will depend solely on your actions with the quest line you will receive."

Zerez sighed inwardly. Truthfully, he just wanted to get some time alone soon to think about what had happened up till then. He found it all interesting, for sure, but he would have to see if the potential positives were something he was actually interested in.

"Can you explain why?" Taiga asked the Administrator. "Why did that guy show up? Why did he enter the room when it was obviously designed as a solo mission."

"I'm honestly not sure why-"

"Aren't you the Administrator?" Zerez spoke up. "Aren't you supposed to know what's going on in your own g-"

"As I was about to explain…" the Administrator said as she stared dead into Zerez's eyes, running a chill up his spine. "I don't know because this game's program runs deeper than we can imagine. You've witnessed the fact that a learning AI exists in this world, correct?"

"As in NPCs and other things will take observed situations, learn from then, and then and apply them later, if not immediately, correct?" Taiga answered, attempting to confirm her hypothesis.

"Precisely. This entire world runs on that kind of code. Situations happen that we cannot explain. My guess from looking at the information regarding your incident suggests that Zerez has so much potential that instead of going off into his own meditation room, his will broke into another meditation room. Your room, Taiga," the Administrator explained.

"H-How does that make any sense," Zerez leaned back, placing a hand on his forehead. "What does an abstract term like potential mean in a video game? How does one measure this potential?"

The Administrator looked behind the players to Flower. "It will be easier to show you an example of potential. Summon your Persona, Miss Lei."

"O-Of course, madam!" the Malaysian girl responded quickly as she took a deep breath and focused. A card appeared in front of her with the back holding the same design as the mask on the floor from earlier. The other side had a picture of her Persona. "Come forth, Calliope!"

With a quick slash of her arm, she shattered the card like glass and her Persona faded into existence. Since it was the first time they had witnessed a Persona, Taiga and Zerez moved back out of instinct as a woman in a regal white gown appeared. Her face was chrome in color and her eyes were hollow, having no mouth below them. Her hair was long and flowing, black in color, while around her floated an intricate scroll with endless writing inscribed in black ink.

"Your Persona is a mask to defend and guide you during your journey. It is a reflection of your psyche, and a representation of yourself. I'm very interested to see what you both have that attracted Visum to you. Perhaps it was a random occurrence? Perhaps he sensed something? Let's find out." the Administrator stated.

"W-What's with this game?" Zerez whispered to himself under his breath, eyeing Flower's Persona.

"I'll teach you personally what you were supposed to learn in that meditation room. In Immersion, in order to summon a Persona, you must expend mental energy to give it form. But what is your Persona's form? Meditate on it and focus. You've already been able to channel energy from your Persona. Think the same way, but focus your energy towards finding it and shaping it. That card that Flower had is the first step to summoning your Persona," the Administrator explained from her chair.

Taiga nodded, focusing her mind much like the Administrator explained. The faint image of her Persona flashed across her mind's eye, and her actual eyes widened as she began to understand what to do. After only a few more moments, she got up and turned around to the large room's space. A card appeared in front of her and she quickly grasped it in her hand, shattering it much like Flower did.

"Nemesis!" she shouted. "I-I don't know how I know your name…but I'm glad you're here."

In front of her was a gray Persona with a painted smile between a vertical spiked wheel running through the mid-section and the top of the body. It towered over Taiga, being about twice as tall.

"So Nemesis is the one to heed your call. One of my dear friends possesses the same Persona, albeit yours seems more feminine in general," the Administrator mused. Taiga took a deep breath as she willed her Persona to leave.

"G-Good job," Zerez smiled to Taiga, who returned the smile with a sense of pride.

"Zerez. Please," the Administrator motioned to him. Zerez stood up, trying to focus the same way.

"I…I don't think I'll be able to summon it," Zerez said in a strained voice. He was searching and focusing, but he felt like he couldn't pick out his Persona from the energy clouding it in his mind. There was power. _A lot_ of power. So much power, in fact, that he was having a hard time channeling it into a physical form.

"This should be interesting," the Administrator said with tone of building light excitement.

"I think I've got it," Zerez said quietly. A card started to form in front him, though it was fading in slowly. He took breaths that were deeper and deeper. His breathing was almost like a small sign that showed his pulsating mental energy. It was like a heartbeat getting deeper and stronger. The trend continued and repeated until the card fully formed in front of Zerez.

In a passionate shout, Zerez yelled, "Persona! Come forth, Tiamat!"

A shaking was felt in the room as the Administrator and Taiga braced their selves to the desk, while Flower was on the other side taking a knee before she fell over. A large dragon, almost taking up then entire room in front of Zerez, was forming slowly from a transparent form. It was covered in dark brown scales and looked like a traditional dragon outside of the fact that it had no claws, only wings and feet, and five ferocious heads, all moving around and screaming. The room shook as the Administrator quickly summoned a rapier in her hand and jumped over her desk. She spun the summoner around and shoved him to the ground, thrusting her sword directly in front of a panicked and out of control Zerez. His expression froze in fear as the Persona started to dissipate and the room stopped shaking.

"Consider this an early lesson to take to heart. It takes a fair amount of concentration to hold onto control of your Persona. If you become panicked, you'll lose control," she explained, de-virtualizing her rapier.

The large steel doors opened slowly as a figure wearing a blue velvet robe ran into the room. Their face was covered by both the hood and another mask looking like the back of those cards. The mask along with the robe covered almost all features of the person. Both Taiga and Zerez, the latter of which was still flustered by the overwhelming experience from earlier, noticed that this person actually had a username, opposed to the Administrator's lack of one. Something also to note was the presence of at least a dozen other players, much like Flower.

"Is everything ok, Administrator?" the masked figure, GM Yuzu, asked in a panicked tone. The voice was female, and by the sounds of it, she was _very _worried.

"Everything is under control, Yuzu," the Administrator smiled. "Our guest has high potential and needs only to learn how to wield it. Miss Lei. Please escort our guests back to a regular lobby and explain the Dispatcher system to them."

"U-Understood, Administrator," Flower politely bowed, walking towards the two players.

"Regarding Visum," the Administrator said quietly to the players before Flower reached him. "You'll start receiving messages and quests about them in time. Just concentrate on learning about Immersion and your powers."

"Let's go," Flower smiled, meekly waiting to the players to follow. Taiga looked back at the Administrator. Just who was she? Just how deep did this game go? Quietly, they both followed Flower out of the room, past the multitude of other players and the other GM.

When they left, the Administrator said in a loud, commanding voice, "I appreciate your concern. Moderators, thank you all for the concern. You man continue on with your work."

At that command, the moderators left dispersed from around the door, while Yuzu walked up to the Administrator. "I've been getting reports of Visum interrupting more players."

"I wonder what he's up to…" the Administrator said as she walked over to the consoles on the side of the room, staring at a camera on the wall Taiga and Zerez were walking down with Flower. "Igor told me that he would eventually start acting upon his own motivations. He appears to just be targeting players who have high potential."

"Of course, that's not the only way to measure success," Yuzu said, jumping up on the desk, her velvet cloak just barely hanging over the floor. "Why do we have to use him, anyway?"

"It was explained to me that he was an integral part to the plan. Although not even the Velvet Room knows exactly what's going to happen. They know who and what he is, but they won't tell me the exact details," the Administrator explained.

"I'd normally start flipping out about our right to know, but that won't get us anywhere," Yuzu sighed.

"You've grown," the Administrator turned and smiled.

"I'm just glad you can't see my face right now," Yuzu laughed.

"Let's sum up what we know about Visum so far. He's the main 'villian' presented to players, though we know that the version of Visum they see in these instances are simply pre-programmed. The real Visum is out there, and he's more than just a programmed script," the Administrator said, typing out her notes as she said them.

"Maybe if you kill the real Visum, the rest will die and everything will change? So then the next question is, who is Visum?" Yuzu continued on. "Or rather, what is he? I wonder how he's connected to all of this…"

The Administrator sighed. "And all of this on top of several different agendas. We still have to present this as a game at the end of the day. We still have unpredictable world events, events and quest that we as an administration group have chosen to give, and the fact that what we're doing is going to have far reaching effects."

"I take back what I said about not flipping out." Yuzu gave an audible growl, obviously quickly getting fed up with the situation. "There's too much at stake for us to not know everything! Especially with how much this is connected to-"

"Enough," the Administrator interrupted calmly, though bluntly. Yuzu immediately stopped, her mask showing a blank expression as she stared at the Administrator. "I know it's frustrating, but there are things going on that we can't even begin to comprehend. We're going to have to live with the fact that we're in the dark for now to make sure that the Velvet Room as a level of control since we can't wield that power ourselves."

"I…I know," Yuzu said dejectedly. "In the end, though, you know it sucks to basically be on the sidelines."

"Maybe we're not on the sidelines," the Administrator said as the final camera on the 100th floor lost sight of Taiga and Zerez as they entered the elevator. "Think about what _they_ did. They reached out to regular people and drew on that power."

"I suppose that's our goal. To watch and guide this unique representation of humanity," Yuzu spoke softly, in as much deep thought as the Administrator. "The quests that we designed…we didn't walk out unscathed. They may not get the physical pain, but mentally…is it ok?"

"Would you rather the world fell?" the Administrator retorted bluntly.

"At least the same thing won't be at stake for most of these guys…" Yuzu sighed.

"We will make sure nothing goes wrong," the Administrator said as she stepped away from the consoles. "Regardless of how much we don't know and how deep in the darkness we are, we will not abandon the promises we made at the start of all of this."

Yuzu just stood up silently. "I'm going to start personally intercepting Visum."

"Stay safe. The stakes are much higher for us than them. It's only a game for others, but for us, it's everything," the Administrator warned. "I can't afford to lose my valuable GMs for an entire week."

"Thanks. By the way, it was a good call to try and hide physical identities and info," Yuzu said as she walked towards the door. "I'd hate to imagine what the more research savvy players would find out if they knew who we were. That'd be a mess."

"Same orders to you as the moderators. Send any players to me so I can explain the situations from the top," The Administrator looked down to the Velvet Key in her hand that she summoned while turning around to the door that only a select few could see. "I'm going to try and illuminate some of the darkness while you're gone. If I'm just staring at the wall, wait for me."

* * *

**Some things to clarify in this A/N. Yuzu is not Yuzu from SMT: Devil Survivor**. **I'll be taking cues from other games in the SMT universe, in case you notice some familiar though unique spells not from Persona making appearances, such as the melee skills like Deathbound. **

**I continuously think of things to explain about the Immersion universe that I try to answer in author notes as I go, but in the end, there's a lot. Something I can't/won't explain, but if you ever have any questions, please ask away in a review or even a PM! Thusly, I'm starting reviewer responses in author notes. **

**As always, thanks for reading! **

* * *

_Reviewer Responses:_

Demons Anarchy of Pride – If you have a account, I'd prefer if you sent me your OC in a DM so I can actively communicate with you about your character and changes that need to be made so he fits. Please contact me if you have one!

* * *

**OC Credits:**

**Zerez (Carl Lloyd) – Pharaoh Ra**

**Taiga (Alice Long) – MrMissMrs Random**

**flower_bud (Feng Lei) – Rhapsody Duskbane (I sorta had to write out Flower to make her username make sense in spoken dialogue. If this wasn't your intention and you're not fine with it, please contact me so we can work something out. I'll still be making illusions to her actual username, so I'm not changing it altogether, but for most conversations and descriptions, I'm going to have to just Flower over flower_bud.)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Message of the Day – Macca is the "currency" used in Immersion. Along with buying items, Macca is a special kind of data used to "craft" original material or to strengthen items you already own. Go to a shop and talk to the vendor to start creating!**

**(Also, major announcement in the end notes for you all who don't normally read it.)**

* * *

A sense of happiness and excitement filled the air as Alice Long entered her local reality hub. That same atmosphere penetrated the air as people were chatting about the game before heading their separate ways. They learning the extent of what they could do in Immersion. They were making friends. They were having fun.

They were having adventures.

Alice sighed to herself. She went into Immersion apathetically at first, pulled in by the hype and commotion over "the most innovative game of all time." She was impressed overall, but she couldn't find herself "enjoying" the game like others did. When she had her encounter with Visum, however, her thoughts changed. She met the Administrator. She learned that she was unique compared to the mass mob of players around her. She felt like she had a chance to…_maybe_…have her own adventure instead of mindlessly playing a game she didn't really care for.

The thought sunk into her mind as she walked along. She could have her own adventure and actually have fun.

Navigating the large complex to her assigned room, she gave the room's monitor a nod as she settled herself into the reality link. Alice closed the machine started, the bright light forcing her to close her eyes setting in. After a few moments her senses started to kick in again as she opened her eyes to find herself hovering a few inches in the air outside the café. Other players paid little attention to the player materializing, aside from moving around her as her illuminated body started to develop features before slowly lowering to the ground. After only two weeks, players were getting used to the little things common in Immersion. Peer pressure dictated to the new players that if no one else was staring at the shining body randomly appearing out of nowhere and forming into a player, then they shouldn't either. Taiga, on the other hand, had not played Immersion since their meeting with the Administrator, so as a player spawned on the other end of the hallway, she couldn't help but notice the process. It was simple. A player would start to fade into "reality" as a white shining body hovering off the ground, resembling a mannequin. After a few moments, the player would start to gain features before finally loading in completely and slowly setting on the ground.

Upon spawning on the 50th floor, Taiga immediately moved to the wall opposite the glass wall and leaned against it, opening her console and opening her friends list. A simple green dot next to flower_bud's handle told Taiga the moderator was online. Pressing the player's name, several options appeared, with "Call" being the one Taiga quickly pressed.

After a few moments of ringing, a voice played through the Taiga's special glasses, crystal clear in quality. "Hello Taiga. I'm actually on the elevator now on the way down to you."

"I'll head to the elevators then," Taiga replied, starting her walk there. On the other end, Flower heard Taiga's voice just as clear, despite the lack of an obvious microphone and the crowd of chatter around Taiga.

"T-This wasn't a bad time, was it?" Flower asked. "I've been swamped with observing a few floors in the HQ and writing up reports, so this is the only chance I've had."

"Oh, it's completely fine," Taiga responded, taking care not to hit anyone as she rounded the corner. "When you gave me the time, I was actually really happy. Right now, my father's in the hospital doing some tests for most of the day."

A light gasp could be heard on from Flower's end of the call. "I-Is he alright?"

Taiga paused for a moment. He wasn't alright. He was sick. He's been sick for a long time and they can't find out what's wrong with him. "He's fine."

"A-Are you sure you should be here? I picked a terrible time and-" Flower said with a worried tone in her voice.

"It's fine, Flower," Taiga calmly said as she stood near the elevator, wondering which of the dozen Flower would eventually walk out of. Taiga eyed each one as it opened, some more than once, until she finally noticed Flower walking out of one. "I'm over to your left."

Flower smiled, making her way to the dark brown haired girl. "Are you _sure_ you shouldn't be with your dad?"

"They're just running the same old tests they always do. It's just a check-up," Taiga explained. It was true, though she needed to contain her anger at the fact that the doctors were not making any progress. "Anyways, I should be apologizing first and foremost. Real life issues were coming up and I really did have to go as soon as we left the Administrator's office."

"It's fine, really. I just like helping where I can," Flower assured the player. "We're just lucky we were able to find a time for you to get online so I could help you like the Administrator told me too." Taiga nodded as Flower motioned for them to start moving.

"Now, first and foremost, you need to learn about the most important feature to questing in Immersion, the Dispatcher System," Flower explained as they moved back into an elevator. "Go to your console menu. There should be an option that says 'Dispatch.'"

"I don't see how I could miss it," Taiga joked, noticing how it took up a large section of the top right of her console's home page, surrounded by high-tech designed circles. Taiga could see it was apparently a big deal.

"Press it," Flower said as she just leaned next to the elevator's console. Taiga did so, with the 'Dispatch' now being replaced by a "Calling…" sign.

"Hello, this is Network HQ. Thank you for calling Dispatch," Flower almost giggled as Taiga did a double-take notice Flower's voice playing both in front of her and through her glasses. "This is the Dispatcher System. It patches you into a Dispatcher, much like the one you should have spoken to when you did your tutorial mission."

"That was an NPC, though," Taiga mentioned, recalling her questions and attitude.

"You're right, but the Dispatcher System is just as adaptable as the rest of the game. When you're ready to go on a mission, you start the call. Sometimes, depending on your situation, the situation around you, or depending on what you've accomplished, you may get an actual dispatcher we have stationed here in HQ," Flower explained as Taiga was still getting over hearing the moderator double.

"So, are you one of these Dispatchers too?" Taiga asked, taking off the glasses for a bit.

"Nope. Since I'm giving you a personal tour in place of the explanation mission you would have done normally, we did some tweaking around for fun." Flower gave a fake cough before saying in an official tone of voice, "Player. According to the data I have on you, you should be refitting and getting acquainted with the tools you have here at HQ, along with the surrounding area. I have marked several locations you need to visit."

Taiga leaned back against the elevator wall and crossed her arms with a smirk at the girl's attitude. She was reserved but warmed up to people easily in a very childlike manner. Taiga could tell from some of her forced mannerisms that Flower still wasn't in her comfort zone, though. She must have been prepping herself mentally for most of the day.

"Are you ok?" Flower asked, waving in a hand on front of Taiga. "I-I'm acting weird, aren't I? I'll stop…"

"N-No!" Taiga laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "No, I was just spaced out by how cool it was. It's not weird. I'm going to assume that Zerez didn't get something this cool, so yeah! I'm honored!"

Flower's face beamed as the elevator opened, having been sent on its destination while Taiga was spaced out. "Thanks, Taiga. Welcome to floor 11 of Network HQ, Weapons Acquisition."

_Preparations_

_Mission Details:_

_[] Go to a weapons vendor. (Floor 11)_

Taiga mentally programmed a side button on her glasses to fire out a tracker orb while the two walked out of the elevator. She fired it out and the white orb flew to the left of the simple hallway and into a huge opening to the right.

"This floor's pretty simple," Flower said as she followed Taiga. "If you take a left from the elevators, you'll find a huge open area filled with vendors. It's like a huge convention or something!"

"And if I were to go right?" Taiga questioned.

"Then you would find a staging area for a bunch of practice areas and rooms. We have simulation rooms on the 7th to 10th floors, but some people just want to beat up practice dummies or get a feel for a weapon with literally no stress," Flower explained as they took a turn into the vendor's area. Literally every vendor's booth, all several dozen of them, shone with a white outline.

"T-That's a dull brightness," Taiga commented, wincing her eyes at the light intensity, quickly moving to the closest booth that wasn't occupied to make it stop. The man at the booth, sporting the now common-place velvet blue and black styled uniform, opened a console and pressed a few buttons before Taiga walked up to him, Flower close behind her.

"You're here for the intro quest to this floor, right" the man asked even though he already knew the answer.

"Apparently," Taiga responded simply.

"Well, let's go over things quick then, I don't want to keep you too long. Do you know what Macca is?"

"She doesn't know anything," Flower teased from behind.

Taiga shot a humorous glare behind her. "No, I don't know what Macca is."

"Macca is the currency you have in Immersion. Don't ask me how they came up with the name, I have no idea," he said as he laid his thin blue console on the booth's surface facing Taiga. "At the top-right here, you can see the total you have. Now, Macca can be used, and is used, like normal money, but it's different in that it's basic form is pure data."

Taiga only nodded, not quite getting things yet, but still waiting for the explanation.

"I'll show you what I mean. Macca is loaded digitally when you acquire it, though you'll see it physically as a little gold transparent dodecahedron hex," the man showed as he pressed the Macca counter on his screen. An option showed saying "withdraw" and he punched in the figure "100." Just as he said, a shape reminding Taiga of those complex dice her male friends would always show off appeared next to the console. In the middle floating around was a "100," signifying how much money the hex contained. "Take it," the man motioned. "Also, bonus points for not asking what a dodecahedron is. Normally players give this 'whaaaa-' look all stupidly."

The two girls laughed as Taiga picked up the Macca. "Are you sure?" Taiga tried to confirm.

"It's part of the tutorial," the man laughed. "It's not my personal Macca. In order to actually get the Macca from its physical form, you actually just have to think about it while you're holding it." Taiga nodded and did so. The gold Macca in her hand faded away as her hand glowed the same color gold.

"Now here's the fun part," the man said as he cracked his knuckles. "Crafting. Like I said, Macca is like data. This booth, and most every other one in her doubles as a workbench. Look at this guy over here."

Taiga followed the man's eyes to her left, seeing another player at the far end of the desk. The player had his console opened in front of him and was holding his hands out as well.

"You're not going to be able to really follow what he's doing yet, so let me show you," the man said as he moved his console to the side so both him and Taiga had a clear view. "You should have the option 'Craft' on your screen now that you're at this part of the mission. Just click it like so," the man demonstrated, pressing "Craft" as a blank grid canvas appeared on the screen.

"Most people need weapon vendors to do this part, though you can do it on the field crudely if you think you can. Show me your weapon," the man asked.

"Uh…" Taiga literally thumped her head on the booth. "About that…"

Taiga's mind flashed back to the moment that she feebly tossed her spear at Visum, the end result being a nimbly caught and non-returning weapon. Soon after, Taiga had searched her inventory to find out that she never got it back.

"She lost it," Flower said quietly, remembering the intense short battle herself. "I remember what it looked like, so give me a second." She moved up to the booth's counter and pulled out her console, opening the craft menu and pushing the console further in front of her to give her some room. She held her hands out and started to moved them in the shape of Taiga's spear. As she was creating the shape with her hands, a rough blue grid outline showed the shapes she was creating in front of her. Flower was literally sculpting the spear out of a kind of physical hologram.

"Well, since she's basically doing my job for me, I'll explain. Right now, your friend her is literally crafting your spear. Notice how her Macca is showing up on the top screen." The man pointed at the top right of Flower's screen as Taiga watched it get lower and lower, though not at a fast pace. "When you're crafting, you're making a digital version of the item you're looking to make. It will show you losing the amount of Macca it'll take to actually create the iteam, though you won't actually lose it until the Macca starts converting from data to what you're actually making. That way, if you find out that you can't actually make the item, you'll just get refunded for all of your Macca since you were losing any in the first place."

"This must be a lot to take in, but it's really a simple concept," Flower explained as she finished up Taiga's spear, currently represented by the blue outlines running throughout the shape. "And now I press 'Create' and…" Flower didn't say another word as the spear started forming into a steel weapon rather than the holographic shape from before. After only about ten seconds, the spear fully formed and Flower grabbed it before it clunked with the steel counter. "Your spear, Miss Taiga."

"Now, seeing her do that, you might be wondering what we weapons vendors do," the man said as Flower handed off the spear to him instead of Taiga. "Not only do we create weapons and attachments that our players can't visualize or can't create without wasting a bunch of Macca, but we also strengthen weapons and forge them with stronger material." To demonstrate, the vendor placed his hand on the top of Taiga's spear and ran it down the length of the spear. As his hand moved, a blue grid shaped around the spear, much like the outline Flower had just made. When the man was done, the spear pulsed blue for a split second before returning to normal. "You might not be able to see it visually since it was a very subtle change, but if you look at the stats later, you'll notice you spear should be stronger now."

Taiga was handed her new spear by the smiling vendor. "I can definitely feel a weight difference."

"And that's what makes for the best weapon. Light-weight and maneuverable with a ton of stopping power. Any questions about crafting?"

"No, I think I'm good," Taiga answered. "That must have been exhausting, explaining all that."

"You know what," the man leaned on the counter. "The game's given me a chance to get paid well to design stuff in a fun and limitless way. I'm honored to help you players out. If you have any questions, just ring me up and I'll pick up if I'm not busy," he said, pulling out his console and sending Taiga a friend request.

"Thanks, sir," Taiga smiled as Flower and her walked off.

_Preparations_

_Mission Details:_

_[x] Go to a weapons vendor._

_[] Visit the mall and refit your gear if necessary. (Floor 12-20) _

"At this point, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a mall in the middle of this place," Taiga commented as the two went back into the elevator, Flower directing its destination to the 12th floor.

"Remember the first five floors? It's sorta like that, but a tad more ornate," Flower said as the two felt the elevator starting to move. "It's a tad expensive. Some of the clothes cost more Macca than really good weapon improvements."

"Why does it matter to you? Do moderators not get paid in game?" Taiga leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms.

"We get paid in real life, but not in game. You would think it's the other way around, right?" Flower laughed. "In the end, though, we're players too. I've…been so busy I haven't actually had time to play past the mission I'm guiding you on now, though running errands has forced me to travel around some…"

Taiga took note of the disappointment in Flower's voice, but before she could say anything the elevator opened, revealing the first floor of the fancy and ornate mall. Escalators lined the mall's floor, which was open and filled with all sorts of shops, filled with everything imaginable. Taiga looked up to the giant gold chandelier hanging eight floors up and gracing every the entire space with huge gold chains.

Despite the huge interior in front of her, Taiga did not actually care that much for it. It wasn't that she was completely turned off of the idea of shopping, but rather that she was neutral and didn't care. Weapons were useful. Clothes, outside of armor, weren't really that useful to her at the moment. Maybe one day she's take a tour, but she really didn't plan on it right now.

She had to make the most of her time, because she didn't know how often she could actually get online.

"If you fire your tracker, you'll notice that it'll just fire up to the top floor. There's a huge lobby a lot like the weapons vendor area that does technology for things like visors and things related to consoles in general up there," Flower said as she moved forward.

One thing that Taiga noticed as she started to follow Flower was the crowd. In general, it really reminded her of a real life mall, outside of the different kinds of clothes. Despite the game being online, people still acted normal, as if society needed to be upheld. Most of the time, Taiga knew that in MMOs, people would be aloof, and not really care about things. Since Immersion literally immersed you in the experience through body, she figured that people acted tamer in general.

"There's this awesome shop that sells amazing accessories that would look totally weird in real life," Flower beamed as they boarded an escalator.

"Oh?" Taiga replied with an unintended uninterested tone.

"I-I…yeah," Flower stuttered, quickly changing from her happy attitude to avoiding eye contact.

"S-Sorry," Taiga apologized. "I'm just thinking about how fun it would be to chill here with friends." Taiga wasn't really telling the truth, but she quickly picked up on Flower's change in demeanor. In a relatively short time, Flower had warmed up to Taiga, but that still didn't change her from being insecure. In all honest, Taiga normally wouldn't care, but Flower had really helped her and made the experience…a lot more fun, though Taiga couldn't admit she was good at measuring fun in the first place. "Sometime later, would you like to come back?"

"T-Thank you." Flower still avoided eye contact and just stared away at the top of the escalator. Taiga didn't worry too much, considering the smile on her face came back at the very least. "Ah, I'm getting a call."

Taiga laughed to herself as thee kept walking, Flower now pre-occupied with a call. Taiga took a moment to notice that she kept a Bluetooth-like device behind her short black hair.

"W-What?" Flower suddenly stopped. "Why did you say that at the beginning of the call!"

"I-Is everything okay?" Taiga asked as the pair stopped in the middle of the floor.

"I…Visum's on the move. He burst into another player's meditation room, but instead of getting driven away, he actually defeated everyone in the room, including our moderator," Flower growled, a rare bit of anger in her voice.

"I've been giving it some thought," Taiga said, noticing Flower starting to frantically go through messages on her console. "Visum's appearances are like a double-edged sword. Considering he goes through the trouble to reveal himself to players, I'm assuming the players he goes for become a threat regardless of meeting him."

"That's what we've been thinking at HQ," Flower confirmed. "His goal for the moment is to defeat as many players as possible early on. This stunts their progress through the game early on and in turn, they pose less of a threat. The problem, though, is that we don't know what the potential is in his targets."

"I honestly don't feel any stronger," Taiga commented. "I don't feel any different than any other player."

"I'll keep you posted, but I have to get back now. Please, stay safe," Flower said to her friend as she summoned a gem in her hand from her inventory. "U-Um…watch this. You'll be able to craft them when you get a lot more Macca a lot more quickly. It's a Traesto Gem, an item that teleports you back to a set home point." Taiga stood back as Flower crushed the gem, covering her eyes when a bright light shined around her.

Moments later, Taiga turned back and the moderator was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

It took a lot to get Taiga giddy about something, but looking at her new leather watch-based display made her positively ecstatic. She tapped the watch and her console popped out and hovered over the watch. The watch itself also gave a lot of information on in its own right, having several modes for maps and radars and such. Taiga did still keep glasses on, however, just for the sake of not having to look to her watch for one-hundred percent of the information she needed, such as the usernames of the two strange people walking up to her at the end of the monorail she was on.

The first was a guy whose username was simply "Sharp." He had black hair and pale green eyes, covered by clear glasses. He was of average height and had a lean build from being on a track team. His clothes were as simple and to the point as his name, consisting of a plain white t-shirt under a light blue shirt-jacket.

The second person was a girl going by the username "The Bandit", staying close to the side of him. She had dark brown wavy hair. It was much like Taiga's hair, save for the fact that Taiga kept her hair short with a bob cut while this girl kept it flowing back to her mid-back. She stood at a height of about five feet and five inches with a slender frame for her light caramel skin. Her deep brown eyes carried the same happy tone as her smile. She wore a sleeveless white button-up shirt with a checkered blue skirt and short leggings underneath, complemented by sleek black ankle boots.

"Hey there." Sharp waved a hand to Taiga, who was sitting by herself on the backend of the monorail. Taiga was still exhausted with Flower, not really being used to being around someone so close for so long. All she did was nod her head up in acknowledgement before going back to her console, hoping that just pressing random buttons would make him go away.

"You should let us help you," Bandit spoke up. Taiga raised an eyebrow looking back to the pair.

"T-Terra! Not so blunt!" Sharp scolded his partner by her first name. "What she means to say is that we're the security guild Pallas, and we'd like to see if you're interested in our services."

"W-What?" Taiga deadpanned. Did she really have to deal with something like this after the long morning she just had? She had more important things to deal with, like following up with either Shotsujin, who had just gotten online, or Flower, who was still pinged on her friends list with the infamous red "busy" dot next to her name.

"It's just like we said. We're a security guild. For like, securing stuff," Bandit giggled to herself.

"Excuse her." Sharp rolled his eyes. "I'm assuming your dispatch is sending you off to the Paulownia Mall District?"

"I'm not really interested in what you're selling," Taiga responded, trying to completely derail the conversation by ignoring Sharp's question.

"At least let him explain," Bandit snarled angrily. Taiga responded with a mean look back at her while Sharp looked back and forth between the two girls as the anger bounced between them.

"_Fine_," Taiga sneered back angrily. "I'll at least ask some questions. How do guilds work in this game?"

"I'll be happy to answer," Sharp responded courteously, placing a hand on Bandit's shoulder to try and motion for her to calm down. "We're kinda new players ourselves, so I don't think I have all of the answers. Guilds actually don't become official until they're big enough to get noticed by the GMs. The true test is for them to get organized without in-game tools and for them to prove that they're able to be run with pure leadership skills."

"Well, with your partner being as rude as she is, I don't see you guys off to a good start," Taiga retorted, pointing lazily to Bandit. These two were seriously wasting her time and energy…

"Watch it," Sharp bluntly replied, defending his partner. Bandit just continued looking angrily at Taiga, not keeping her eyes off of her.

"Whatever," Taiga yawned to herself. "Well, tell me about you guys. What's a security guild supposed to be?"

"What does it sound li-"

"A security guild-" Sharp interrupted, glaring at Bandit before continuing, "-is what we're defining ourselves as. Do you know how player versus player interactions work in Immersion?"

"I haven't given it too much thought," Taiga admitted, now more curious that they were talking about useful things.

"_We will be arriving at Paulownia Station in five minutes," _the train's intercom blasted to the nearly empty car.

"You've noticed there no fight in HQ," Sharp pointed out. "That's because there's too many people who have an actual sense of justice that would immediately attack a player killer. In the open, however, where you'll be sent on mission that may lead you to less populated areas, people may actually strike you down for your Macca."

"Oh? There's no protection?" Taiga asked, running situations in her head concerning what she would do now if she was attacked.

"You either need friends or you need to be strong. I don't think people are generally bad in Immersion, considering it's as real life as you can get in a game, but I don't think that you're completely safe at any time either," Sharp finished.

"Hm…well, regardless, I barely have any Macca. New player, you know?" Taiga shrugged. "But honestly, I don't know either of you, nor am I interested either way. People will go about their own business, and if not, then I'll take them down."

"Your confidence will be your down-"

"MOVE!" Bandit shouted, pushing Sharp out of the way and dodging to the side herself. A throwing knife flew past them and smashed through the back window of the monorail. Reflexively, the three players drew their weapons. Taiga drew her spear, while Sharp summoned a sickle with a shining white blade. Bandit called out her bow, a side quiver also attaching itself to her skirt. She quickly drew an arrow, infusing it with ice as the tip surrounded itself with a cold aura, prepared to freeze any target it hit.

Bandit's targets were on the opposite side of the fairly large car. Two figures stood across from them. One was named "TheFallen," a man with messy short black and gray eyes with a small yet noticeable scar over his right eyebrow. He wore a black leather jacket with a gray t-shirt underneath along with dark blue jeans paired with black combat boots. Black fingerless gloved covered his hands, each one holding one Dao sword each.

"Damn it! I'm sorry I missed, Saitou," the girl next to him, CrimsonButterfly, apologized to her partner. Crimson was five feet and seven inches with shoulder length black hair that parted on the side with side bangs. Where her hair parted, she had white bobby pins in an X position. She had amber colored eyes with her face carrying a confident smirk regardless of missing her knife. She wore a black tank top with lace under a red long sleeved v-neck shirt while wearing a short dark blue skirt with a black belt around with. Black thigh socks with a Victorian-esque set of ankle boots finished her attire, along with her twice-pierced ears both having a red butterfly charm and an onyx ring. Most importantly to everyone on the monorail car, however, were her hands, both having nails decorated with dark red nail polish and each hand carrying two more throwing knives each.

"It's nothing personal, Taiga!" Fallen shouted from across monorail car. "We've just been hired to kill you!"

"The hell…?" Taiga muttered to herself.

"If the other two of you could just get out of the w-"

A fast arrow flew from Bandit's bow, the impatient girl releasing her anger on the two hostiles in front of her. Fallen jumped in front of his partner and channeled his Persona's fire skills into his swords, effectively lighting them on fire. With a quick and fiery slash, the arrow disintegrated while Bandit drew several more and kept on firing.

"_We will be arriving at Paulownia Station in one minute," _the train's automated message played again.

"You know what to do, Akane!" Fallen shouted. CrimsonButterfly nodded as her teammate continued to block and redirect the arrows. Both Taiga and Sharp looked for an opening, but between the blazing swords and Bandit's relentless volley, both decided to be patient and keep their eyes on Crimson. Crimson forced opened the door connected their back car to the rest of the train and focused her mind. A moment later, a tarot card appeared before her and with a quick slash of her knife, Kikuri-Hime was released. The black and red colored deity hovered over the small space between the cars and raised her hand. A fireball formed in her hands as she threw it down onto the connector. Though it didn't shatter the first time, Kikuri-Hime repeatedly struck the metal with powerful blasts of fire until it finally broke. Though the station, raised and settled on the side of a building, was in sight off to the distance, the car broke off and stalled in place while the rest of the train made its way to the destination.

Behind Crimson, the fight was still raging. With Bandit's arrows covering him, Sharp finally ran down the length of the car and engaged Fallen with his sickle. He wasn't much of a fighter, in actuality, but he was hoping at least to give Bandit a break before she ran out of arrows. He wanted to summon his Persona, Kamaitachi, but it was a stronger Persona that he needed more time to focus on in order to summon. Instead, he tried to channel his Persona's wind attribute and blast air with his sickle. Fallen took note of this and fought offensively, countering Sharp's entire strategy. Instead of being pushed back by the winds, Fallen stabbed forward with his sword with Sharp barely dodging. Sensing he couldn't keep up with Fallen in a close-range battle, Sharp slashed forward with his sickle, not intent on hitting Fallen, who braced for a block anyways, but rather pushing himself back with a gust of air, nimbly keeping his balancing as Bandit once again started firing arrows.

"Nemesis!" Taiga shouted, releasing her Persona outside the back of the monorail car. "Agi!" she shouted, not really knowing why she knew the spells name, but not really caring at the immediate moment either. Her Persona's wheel started spinning as heat gathered at a focal point right in front of the back door. With a small blast, the door shot forward, as Taiga blocked it with her spear and pushed the light door to the side. "Let's move!" she shouted, pulling Sharp back as Bandit slowly moved back with them, covering them the best she could in spite of her being almost out of arrows.

"Move!" Crimson shouted to Fallen, as she darted to the side of the swordsman and threw three fast throwing knives. One knife missed. The second knife miraculously collided with an ice arrow that Bandit just fired.

"AHH!" The third knife landed right in Bandit's upper right leg, the one she was using to crouch down for stability. Needless to say, although Bandit wasn't in "pain," the sensation of an immobile leg wasn't comfortable or practical as she fell to the side, returning her bow to her inventory and clutching her leg, quickly pulling out the knife. There was blood, but it was minimal and didn't actually effect anything.

"No no no no no," Sharp muttered repeatedly, pushing Taiga off of him and moving forward as soon as he saw Bandit go down and Fallen dash forward in response. Sharp dashed past Bandit's downed form and slashed forward once again, trying to blast wind down the length of the car. Although Crimson fell back to the gusts, Fallen braced himself, outlasting the wave of wind, and pushed himself forward again, reigniting the swords Sharp's wind extinguished. While Crimson was still staggered and getting up from the blast of air, Sharp and Fallen met in the middle of the car. Sharp was angry this time around due to his partner's injury, though it didn't matter in closing the close combat skill gap of the two opponents.

"I'm sorry your friend got hurt. We only wanted Taiga," Fallen apologized between the two players' attacks.

"I'm sorry my partner got hurt too," Sharp scowled back, taking a wide swing at Fallen. Fallen blocked with one sword and went forward with a stab with the other. Sharp barely dodged to the left before pulling back his sickle. Due to the positioning, Fallen was between both Sharp and the sickle as got pulled forward, losing his balance. Sharp quickly slammed his knee into Fallen's stomach, kicking his opponent back as a follow-up. Before he could land a finishing blow to the reeling twin swordsman, however, Crimson had gotten back up and dashed forward, slashing forward extremely aggressively, proving she could do more than just throw knives. Even though Sharp was on the retreat, using wind slashes to distance them more, he managed to turn around and see Taiga getting Bandit off of the train. With all of his remaining strength, Sharp slashed down, piercing the steel floor with the sickle and creating a huge wind gust, managing to push back both Fallen and Crimson to the end of the car, with the Crimson actually flying out of the car.

"You don't have a freaking potion?" Bandit shouted to Taiga as Sharp quickly jumped out of the exit Taiga made.

"You should be glad I helped you in the first place!" Taiga shouted back. "You think I like being useless in the middle of a fight?"

"SHUT UP!" Sharp commanded, causing both girls to look at him. "Give me all of your Macca, now!"

"Why would you-" Bandit started.

"Just do it! We need to move!" Sharp ordered. Taiga immediately saw what Sharp was doing as he frantically waved his hand forward, a ring on his hand projecting his console. He immediately went to the crafting menu. In the meantime, both Taiga and Bandit withdraw all of their Macca, though Taiga didn't have much to contribute with. Taking the physical Macca hexes and absorbing them, Sharp started to craft a simple circle, making some quick adjustments and shapes to add special edges. "D-Dammit! I need to look this shape up. I thought I could do it by memory."

"You're trying to-you idiot! You should of let me craft it!" Bandit shouted.

"No…you're covering me with you bow and arrow," Sharp turned and glared angrily. As if on cue, both Fallen and Crimson had gotten up, recovered, and started running around the separated car. The rails were raised high into the air, so the Pallas members and Taiga were effectively trapped out in the open. Bandit didn't plan on running, however, laying prone due to her bad leg and tilting her bow sideways. Though her shots were awkward, she still managed to force the two attackers to retreat back behind other side of the train for cover, suppressing them for the time being.

"Agilao!" Crimson yelled from behind her cover. Her Persona, Kikuri-Hime flew above the train, catching Bandit by surprise. Before the Persona could attack, though, Nemesis tackled it from the side, making sure to connect with its high speed spinning wheel body.

"Agi!" Taiga ordered as Kikuri-Hime was knocked back. The following fire blast from Nemesis did nothing to the other Persona, who turned back the Persona and started to fight it hand to hand.

"Inari! Attack!" Fallen then commanded within hearing of the trio. A humanoid nine-tailed fox dashed from behind cover. If the situation wasn't so perilous, Taiga would have been impressed at the cultural overtones of the fox, having long black hair in a ponytail, a white yukata, and a blue hakama. Even the intricate blue painted designs Inari were impressive, though he was moving too fast for anyone to get a good view. While this impressed Taiga for a split-second, it infuriated Bandit, who wasted the rest of her arrows trying to strike down the Persona. A large blue fire formed in Inari's hands and fired forward towards the group.

"We can't dodge!" Bandit screamed. Taiga shut her eyes, bracing for impact. Instead of a scalding fire, however, the temperature around her became slightly colder. Her knees weren't pressed against the cement monorail tracks' bridges anymore. Instead, they were on carpet. She opened her eyes to see a familiar sight. Gray walls, a plain bed, and a console hovering over a wall to her right.

"T-That was close," Bandit said, curling up on the ground taking deep breaths, grasping her injured leg once more.

"M-My room?" Taiga stuttered, heart still racing.

"My room," Sharp replied, moving over and falling on his bed. He threw his fist in the air in victory. "Traesto Gem."

* * *

**Well, I think I've actually gotten most all of the concepts out of the way, so we'll be seeing more action like the second half of this chapter from now on. The first half felt very convoluted, but I didn't really think I could describe the crafting system any less…weirdly? Also, I'm taking Macca since I'm unoriginal with currency. **

**ANYWAYS. BIG NEWS TIME YAY. I'm actually going to unbold for a while since this is potentially going to take a bit to say.**

Now that we've gotten most of the concepts out of the way, I'm going to make an announcement I've been waiting to make ever since I started writing Persona: Immersion.

**Immersion: Focused Reality, a parallel RP to Persona: Immersion will be opening within the next few days.**

Ever since I started writing my vision for the world of Immersion, I wanted to open an RP with a world so open to people creating their own content within the world. So far, I've done things the traditional way of accepting OCs and having a fanfic like that, but I also want to give readers another way to experience the fun of writing and enjoy the setting of Immersion in a more personal and hands on way.

**Focused Reality will be hosted on the forums **_**Mythological Games**_**, a forum hosted by my amazing friend Ra (writer of Persona: The Darkness Awakens and owner of the character Zerez). Link (take out spaces): www . fanfiction forum/Mythological_Games/104495/**

For the next day to three or four days, we'll be chatting on a RP chat for FR to decide exactly how we want to run it, since it's your experience as much as it is mine. You guys are running the show here as much as you can. The topic will be named "Immersion: Focused Reality RP Chat."

Remember that this isn't actually my forum. We're guests here and it's been a relatively small and quiet and nice forum up until. We're really nice people, but please try to show etiquette**. Introduce yourself first before anything, and please use proper grammar to the best of your abilities. **That said, feel free to stay awhile and mingle and chat with us. We're a group with a wide range of interests, mainly Pokémon and Persona.

Well, I think that's everything. Thank you for reading through that and I hope you're as excited as I am! I'll be editing this author's note when we decide how the RP's going to be run instead if the note saying that we're still deciding.

* * *

**OC Credits:**

**Taiga (Alice Long) – MrMissMrs Random**

**CrimsonButterfly (Akane Hiiragi) and TheFallen (Saitou Okuda) – Miki-san4u **

**flower_bud (Feng Lei) – Rhapsody Duskbane**

**Sharp (Eric Cutter) – infinityphoenix**

**The Bandit (Terra Brangski) – JJ436**


	6. Chapter 6

**Message of the Day – Shadows are the mysterious monsters that appear in the world of Immersion. They tend to appear in secluded locations such as the many abandoned buildings of Iwatodai and appear in larger numbers at night. Exceptions can occur, however, and their presence baffles the Persona Network to this day.**

* * *

Akane Hiiragi and Saitou Okuda, known to the world of Immersion as CrimsonButterfly and TheFallen, was a pair to be reckoned with. Fallen was the close-range fighter, quickly learning the extent of his channeling abilities. Crimson was the ranged support, tossing deadly knifes that she handcrafted, taking a lot of time to research exactly how they needed to be designed. Of course, handcrafting knives on the field rather than a weapons vendor was expensive, but the pair found a way to make Macca that others were still slightly hesitant to take up.

News had traveled to Fallen about people who would place bounties on players for various reasons. Maybe someone did something to harm a friend, for instance. Whatever the reason, bounty hunters were starting to come to fruition, despite the risks involved. They had to make their kills quick and efficiently, making sure to get as few players as possible involved at a time.

Three people shouldn't have been much, but they're method of attack could have obviously used some work. Their target was a player by the name of Taiga, with their client being a mysterious black trench-coated man, features hidden with help from the dark ground level alleyway he hired the pair at. Overall, a very shady deal that most would pass on, but with Fallen's optimistic approach to life, Crimson's apathy to strange happenings, and the client's 10,000 Macca reward, the real life friends decided that they would go for it.

At any rate, the attack didn't go as planned. The other two people on the train, members of a "security guild" named Pallas (if Fallen overheard them correctly), and Taiga help them off until last second, a burst of light surrounded the pair. After it dissipated, the trio was no longer there, and the timing window the hunters had to assassinate their target was gone, most likely never to return.

"We still need to find out how they got away," Crimson muttered to herself, just within earshot of Fallen. The two were walking along the streets of the Paulownia District, the cityscape's light illuminating them as Crimson kicked a small rock down the way.

"Probably some item we haven't seen yet," Fallen shrugged. "We might need it soon, if this meeting goes south."

A heavy air surrounded the two. It had been ten hours since the failed attack. Despite their best efforts, the two couldn't track down Taiga, or the two guild members. Now they were on their way to the follow-up meeting with their client to report their failure.

"Hey, Saitou," Crimson latched onto Fallen's arm as they walked. "That man. We're in trouble, aren't we?"

"I'm sure he was just some annoyed kid who had a childish grudge against that Taiga girl," Fallen said in a hopeful, yet disbelieving tone. "I don't…" Fallen hesitated before finally admitting, "We need to be ready."

Though the two were normally cheerful friends, they were very solemn. Not only did the weight of their failed mission burden them, but this meeting just seemed…off.

_Mission Details:_

_[] Meet with the client._

"It really does adapt to anything," Fallen gave a nervous smile to the mission that just appeared to both players. He fired forward a tracker, taking a right turn into an alley that was much too close for Fallen's comfort. "We're turning right in two alleyways."

"The closer we get, the more I don't like this," Crimson said nervously as the made the turn.

"Akane," Fallen stopped walking before they reached the turn. "I want you to head back to your room. Head somewhere safe."

"A-Are you listening to yourself?" Crimson delivered a fast and endearing slap to the back of Fallen's head. "We've been best friends for years, and you're telling me to just leave randomly like this! I don't care if this is a game! This feels dangerous and-"

Fallen interrupted the rambling girl by pulling her in for a hug, Crimson's face turning red as she pushed lightly out of embarrassment. "You're rambling again. If you really want to come, I don't think I can stop you," he smiled as they walked around the corner.

The alleyway was small, opening up into a large square concrete parking lot. The buildings around them were large, but not overly so like the middle of the city. Fallen fired out a tracker one last time, noticing it only fire out to the middle of the parking lot before disappearing.

"Where is he?" Crimson softly asked herself, eyes darting around before finally spotting a dark figure three stories up on a balcony behind them.

"You failed to assassinate your target," the voice shouted out to them from his distant perch, though not in an angry tone.

"Yep, sorry about that," Fallen turned and laughed, trying to make light of the situation.

"What a shame. Taiga's a key player in this game…" The man jumped down from the balcony to stand ground level with the pair. Even though the shadows were no longer covering him, the well-lit parking lot still did nothing to show his features outside of his black hooded cloak. His face was still perfectly concealed in his shadow, almost unnaturally so.

"Well…we'll be going now," Fallen continued to give his now nervous laugh as he put his arm around Crimson and started to walk away.

"Now that I think about it…you two are potentially key players as well."

Crimson snapped her body around out of instinct and pushed Fallen out of the way as a black sword spun past the pair. It instantly disappeared and reappeared in the mysterious man's hand as soon as it hit the ground.

"Don't you dare attack us like that!" Crimson shouted, anger evident as she summoned four knives and hurled them at the attacker. As the man dodged quickly to the left with a long sideways jump, Fallen took the initiative as he got up.

"Inari! Agi!" The humanoid fox didn't hesitate to attack as soon as Fallen shattered the card in his hand and summoned him. Just as he was summoned, his characteristic blue flame fired forward in the form of a fireball, right where the client was about to land. Instead of taking the hit however, the man sliced upward with his sword. A powerful wind slash was released, quickly dissipating the fire and causing the pair of friends to brace themselves against the wind.

As the wind settled, Crimson looked up to see the man no longer wearing his hood. The short black hair and the indescribable chilling expression immediately told them who the man in front of them was.

"You're the man from the train," Fallen spoke up.

"'The man from the train', 'the man in black', 'that mysterious dude,'" Visum listed. "I'm getting tired of this. That damn Network needs to hurry up and progress the story as you idiots learn my name. I'm Visum, by the way."

"I-I thought you were an NPC! You're not supposed to be able to talk with us like this, much less hire us for a bounty or-" Crimson frantically started rambling again.

"You're annoying," Visum interrupted with a sneer before thrusting his arm out. "Garudyne!"

"Move!" Fallen shouted, willing Inari to dash forward and grab the girl, speeding her back to him just as fast. Inari was fast enough for both players to witness the immense collection of wind magic create a mini-tornado burst where Crimson was standing only moments ago. The two players had the same nerves hit them when they noticed a mini-crater signifying what could have been Crimson's body.

"W-What do you want with us!" Crimson cried out.

"I wonder…" Visum eyed the nervous pair. He held out his hand, now glowing with a faint blue, towards the two players. After a few moments, he gave an evil grin. "Ha! To think I would find such an able candidate so soon! I honestly wasn't planning on starting this so soon, but why not? I mean, I've got an able bodied and potential filled Magician right in front of me!"

"W-What's he talking about, Fallen?" Crimson nudged her partner nervously, noticing him draw out two pairs of black ichor stained swords.

"I don't know and I don't care." Fallen summoned his twin Dao swords. "It's just a game. The worst that can happen is that we won't be able to log in for a week. That's fine. We're just going to give it our all! Inari!"

"Kikuri-Hime!" Crimson summoned her Persona, agreeing with her best friend's resolve without any protest.

"The first World Event is at hand!" Visum shouted, slashing his swords in front of him with a shout. "Magarudyne!"

The pair braced themselves once more as the gust of wind struck them, although this time it was actually strong enough to be actively cutting them. The deadly winds forced both Personae to retreat, returning to the sub-consciousness of their summoners.

"D-Dammit! We can't do anything!" Fallen shouted to Crimson.

"The wind will go away soon!" Crimson shouted out her hopes rather than what she knew. Sure enough, the winds stopped, but Visum had taken the opportunity to close the gap. With a forward thrust, he forced the two closely positioned players to have to split up to dodge the attack. Without a single moment of pause, he thrust an open palm at the dodging Crimson.

"Garu!" he shouted, a powerful blast of wind shooting forward from his palm at Crimson. She was blasted back at an incredible speed towards the wall, a clear thirty yards away.

"Akane!" Fallen shouted with the same anger Crimson had when he was attacked. He lit his swords on fire and swung at the still-close Visum. Visum easily caught his slice with his own sword before thrusting with his own. Almost like a dance, Fallen caught Visum's off-handed sword with his own and the two began their deadly dance.

"And there's the potential I saw finally starting to show!" Visum smirked as the two fought. "It's impressive that you've lasted past my initial attack!"

Fallen didn't respond. His mind was focused on two things, both of equal value: not dying to this man, and Akane being alright. Because of the intense pressure Visum was fighting with, he couldn't even look to his friend to see if she was alright.

Crimson wasn't fine, per se, but she was still able to move slowly. Her body didn't react normally, and she _almost_ thought she could feel some pain. Her blurred vision slowly repairing itself did not make things any better, though when her sight was back to normal, she didn't like what she was seeing. Fallen and Visum were locked in combat, with Fallen obviously losing momentum. Fallen's strategy, as the pair knew and exploited, was to be as aggressive as possible. Most people just didn't know how to handle that and if they were falling back, that meant they weren't attacking. If they weren't attacking, then it was only a matter of time before Fallen landing his killing blow. Visum wasn't falling for it and keeping them both in a deadlock.

"Agi!"

"Garu!"

The two duelists shouted their incantations, with Visum's being a reaction to the fiery blade about to explode in his face. Visum knew that when the Agi-infused blade would hit him, the force of the spell would release, blasting him back. Responding with a fast Garu would completely blow away the flames with an air burst at the impact.

Crimson read the situation just as fast as the two swordsmen, readying two knives and throwing them, praying that they would fly straight.

The situation began to resolve itself. Fallen's empowered slash and Visum's counter clashed, and as Visum intended, what would have been a fiery blast was instead blown away by a much stronger force of wind. The two knifes, on the other hand, were flying straight towards Visum's back.

"You think that's going to work?" Visum sighed, desummoning both swords and thrusting open palms towards both Fallen and Crimson. Fallen's eyes widened as he realized there was no way for him to recover since he was still staggering back from the Garu-infused slash only moments earlier. Crimson's heart sank as she realized that her knifes would fail just before they were to land.

"Mabufudyne!" Visum shouted, firing out two blasts of ice energy from his palms. Fallen took the attack at near point blank, being caught within the blast and flying towards the wall opposite of Crimson. When he landed, the energy froze, trapping him and his pained expression in ice. Crimson had almost no time to respond to her friend's crisis. Her knifes were carried in the blast heading towards her. As the Mabufudyne hit her, the knifes carried with the energy embedded themselves next to her in the wall she hit. Unlike Fallen, half of her face was still exposed and not frozen.

"Hm. Didn't quite hit you as hard as I thought I would," Visum said as he took a deep breath. "At least I'll be able to hear you beg and scream though." He slowly started walking towards Fallen's frozen form.

"DON'T YOU GO NEAR HIM YOU BASTARD!" Crimson shriked, using all of the energy she had. Visum just taunted her by cupping his hand next to his ear as if he didn't hear her as he walked along.

"K-Kikuri…w-why aren't you coming out!" Crimson yelled, even though she knew that she just didn't have enough strength left to summon her Persona.

Visum at this point ignored the girl, his mind on one thing. He drew his sword and focused the negative energy he knew so well into it. Although the sword normally dripped of the Shadow's ichor, as he drew energy into it, the darkness gathered more and more to the point where Visum's sword was more of a stick with a glob of the ichor on it. Regardless, Visum stabbed the sword into the ice, penetrating it and stabbing Fallen right through the chest. The ice, as if on Visum's command shattered as well, releasing Fallen, who landed on his knees.

Weakly, he looked up past Visum and to his best friend…his lover and mouthed "run" to her. The next moment he gave a bloodcurdling scream as the ichor from the blade surrounded his body. The ichor grew larger and larger to the point where Fallen's form could no longer be recognized. Crimson watched in horror as her best friend was being transformed.

"How c-can I run y-you idiot. It doesn't matter though. T-This is just a g-game," she whispered to herself in a panicked expression, going into full denial. "N-Nothing bad will happen. T-This is just part of the game."

Visum turned his head and looked at the girl, keeping a frowned and angry expression as he turned back to the pool of negative energy in front of him.

As the ichor grew larger and larger, in a sudden moment Inari, Fallen's Persona, burst out of it, almost as if it was trying to escape the Shadow's energy. The predatory slime instantly shot out and pulled the Persona back in however before finally settling down. A blue mask began to protrude out of the ichor. It had a blank and simple expression. Just two round eyes and a frowning face adorned it as a dark hand slowly extended from behind it. Swords began to poke out of the ichor ball as multiple arms extended behind them. Some of the hands spawned without the presence of a sword, instead acting as legs as the giant Shadow began to take form.

"The Magician reborn from the heart of man," Visum laughed. "Man's desires are as despicable as this! You can spawn darkness from anywhere!"

Crimson only looked from her frozen prison in a mix of disbelieve and shock. Her best friend. The man she secretly loved. Where was he! All she could see what Visum laughing in the background as the giant Shadow moved towards her, swords at the ready to impale her. After a fast walk, the Shadow was right over her, its intimidating form over the young girl.

"Saitou…" Crimson weakly muttered to herself as she looked up to the Shadow. At the top of her vision, something appeared, however. This something jumped down from the huge building. As it got closer and closer, and as the Shadow's blades prepared to strike down on her, the "it" became a "person" and the person carried a naginata. Crimson watched as the figure landed in front of her, though at this point she was too tired to give any response. The figure wore a velvet robe, with the same mask as the back of the cards the players used. A GM was in front of her.

The Shadow acknowledged the newcomer by scrambling back, prepared to fight the new threat after quickly analyzing its target. The GM wouldn't give it the chance to fight. however, pulling out a Traesto Gem and quickly crushing it, enveloping the two players in a warm light before teleporting them away from danger.

Crimson closed her eyes from the brightness and as it faded, her eyes opened. She was laying on the ground, looking up to the creepy neutral expression of the figure in the mask. She weakly looked around her. To her left was a wall lined with full bookcases. To her right was a wall full of consoles zipping back and forward, giving out all kinds of information. Crimson felt a carpet under her, magnificently soft.

"Fallen!" she shot up into a sitting position, grabbing the shoulders of the kneeling and silent GM, instantly regretting her quick movement as her body locked up from the damage she'd taken. Again, not really pain, but definitely not a feeling she was used to.

"We have much to discuss, CrimsonButterfly," a voice, demanding yet understanding, echoed through the room. Crimson looked forward to see a figure behind a grand desk. "I am the Administrator and I would like your help to solve the mystery that was just thrust upon you."

"M-Mystery?" Crimson asked meekly, still trying to figure out what was going on.

"I would like you to log out, now that you're not in combat. Check on your friend," the Administrator requested.

"I-If you knew we were in combat…why didn't you help!" Crimson yelled, starting to piece together information. "And how did you know me and Fallen are real life friends!"

"GM Eurydice only witnessed the final moments of the…conflict that occurred. Everything she sees is relayed to this room," the Administrator explained. "As for knowing your status, as soon as Eurydice relayed the information to me, I searched everything I could about you and him and noticed that you were in the same reality hub. Only a split second's time of more research showed you both at the same school, so I assumed you were friends."

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you…" Eurydice finally spoke up. Her voice was calm, kind, and soft. "I had only arrived once TheFallen had started to be…changed."

"I-I'm going to log out and be back," Crimson explained as she willed herself to log out.

"Mitsuru," Eurydice turned to the Administrator. "You saw everything. What the hell did we get ourselves into?"

Mitsuru Kirijo, the Administrator, couldn't fathom an answer as she watched the security cameras tracking Crimson in her reality hub. Eurydice's eyes widened she watched the feed o

* * *

n the wall's console, now enlarged to a size taking up much of the wall. Eurydice witness Crimson running to the room she knew Fallen would be in. Crimson pounded on the door until it finally opened.

Saitou Okuda walked out. Eurydice cried behind her mask. Akane Hiiragi embraced him in a hug. After a few moments, she slowly backed away as Saitou stood still, emotionless. Akane's knees gave away as she cried, Saitou walking right past her as if nothing had happened.

Apathy Syndrome.

* * *

**As you can tell, this story is directly related to Persona 3 and perhaps 4. If you don't want to be spoiled, I would avoid this story for now. **

**I've been using the same characters repeatedly for a few different reasons. One, some characters made it easier to present the mechanics of the world easier than others. Two, I don't want to throw too many characters at you guys at one time for the sake of keeping characters memorable and known. Finally, some are very important for plot reasons, as you can see from this chapter. The beginning of the story of the Japanese pair of best friends/lovers needed two chapters to introduce.**

**That all said, I've got everyone's OC's printed out and in my hands. I can't promise how long your character will appear or what kind of role they'll play, but I'm not forgetting anyone's OC. **

**The parallel RP is still starting up and it fairly easy to join. Check out the info to join at the end notes of Chapter 5. This will be the last time I plug the RP for a while, so keep it in mind if you're interested. **

* * *

**OC Credits:**

**CrimsonButterfly (Akane Hiiragi) and Saitou Okuda (TheFallen) – Miki-san4u**


	7. Chapter 7

**Message of the Day – We have two exciting developments to report! First, the Magician has appeared! This is the first World Event! Defeat the giant Shadow before it can accomplish its goal! We're also opening the forums for player use! You can access it on the web and in game through your console! A new menu will appear on your consoles for the feature.**

* * *

**Immersion - General Discussion - World Event #1: The Magician has appeared!**

**Post #128 – Shotsujin **

It's taking a bit too much effort to actually find this damn Shadow in the first place. Are we supposed to just investigate this thing the best we can or something?

**Post #131 – Sharp **

_(Original Post#128 – Shotsujin)  
"It's taking a bit too much effort to actually find this damn Shadow in the first place. Are we supposed to just investigate this thing the best we can or something?"_

Just follow every lead you can. It's been a week. You need to make connections and stuff.

**Post #132 – Hamza**

Indeed. Exactly what the guy above me said. If this thing is strong enough to constitute a world sized events, then you shouldn't be going against it alone in the first place.

* * *

In Immersion, when a player is "killed," they're mind and senses immediately return to the real world. Their in-game body, however, tends to stay in place for a little while, especially in areas where a lot of fighting was going on.

Whether it was a game or not, the sight of so many dead bodies gave Garnet Williams intense chills. The girl, going by the in-game alias Sabrina, was a generally upbeat and friendly girl, though she was a little bit shy. She was smart, as well. Her instinct won over her smarts, this time, however. She _knew_ it was a bad idea to be where she was alone. The closer she got to her objective, the heavier the air felt. It affected her breathing, making her take shorter, panicked breaths. Sabrina was smart enough to know she needed to get out of the area. An unknown urge pulled her to the event unfolding only a mile or two away from her, however.

Sabrina's fear was cut off by surprise as a Persona shaped in the form of a tech-covered large wolf burst from an alleyway in front of her. Despite the one hour journey to her current location from Paulownia Station, the buildings were still decently large, a typical downtown setting (as opposed to the industrial and gigantic middle of the city.)

"You need to run!" the man on top of the wolf-like Persona shouted. Along with him on the Persona's back was a lifeless woman, barely moving. Before Sabrina could even come up with a response, a group of five Shadows burst from around the corner. Sabrina's display, given to her through her contacts, named the spherical Shadows as Lying Hableries.

"I've never seen this kind of Shadow before…" Sabrina muttered to herself as the retreating players dashed past her without saying another word. "W-Wait! Can't you help me!"

Sabrina's calls were for naught as the Shadows now turned on her, quickly surrounding the young girl. Aside from the dead bodies lying around, the buildings looked serene enough, nothing like a warzone. She could even see her reflection to her right, her eyes darting there as she was tracking the surrounding Shadows. She was petite with black shoulder-length hair, a pink ribbon tied behind it, though not in a ponytail. She was a sixteen year old who was five feet and six inches tall with green eyes. Below her face was a silver necklace, along with her pink short-sleeve t-shirt, adorned with a yellow star design in front. Her lower body was covered with a short blue denim skirt, black thigh high socks, and light brown short high heel boots. Seeing herself gave her another reminder that she wasn't fit for the close-range combat role. Even while she summoned her sleek black staff, she knew that it alone wouldn't do anything good for her.

"Let's do this!" she grinned as she held her staff out. "Give me your power, Kikuri-Hime!" Sabrina slashed the card that appeared in front of her, revealing the red armored and black bodied humanoid Persona. The two got into their stance, back to back. Kikuri-Hime held out her hands while Sabrina held out her staff, her energy focusing to her hands. "Now! Maragi!"

Sabrina smirked as fire surrounded the two. Within the torrent of fire surrounding them, the Shadow's would definitely be incinerated. The certainty Sabrina had was shattered as the flames dissipated to reveal the five Lying Hableries. They were definitely hit, as you could see the burn marks on them, though they were still moving about. "T-They resist fire!" Sabrina's heart sank. She had two roles. A fire mage, and a healer. Against a Shadow resistant to fire, there was practically nothing she could do. "I-I should have brought Hiroto with me instead of running off on my own…"

The Shadows were done waiting. With a quick dash, two of them went in for the attack. One quickly dashed to Kikuri-Hime. Although the Persona dodged, the Hablerie held its tongue out to the side, landing a clear hit her. Focus lost, the Persona retreated back into its owner's mind. The second Hablerie wasn't quite as lucky as Sabrina was able to barely roll out of the way. This left an opening, however, as the remaining three Shadows dove. One hit Sabrina into the air, while the other smashed her in the back. The third attacked from the side, finishing the deadly pinball-like attack. Sabrina slammed into the same window she was looking at herself in just a little while ago. Her body, having taken a lot of damage, had trouble moving as she slowly made her way back up. She could not take another direct assault.

"Get away from her!" a voice boomed from her left. A player by the name of Aimless Hero was heading straight for the fight. "Odysseus!" he yelled, summoning his Persona along with his spear. Odysseus took the form of a slender tall man, adorned with gold though battle-torn armor. His face was covered, but the resolve the Persona had was easily seen by its stance. Much like his summoner, he was armed with a large spear.

The two reached the fight, with Aimless entering in with a jump into the air. "Snipe!" he shouted as his spear started to shine. The Shadow he was aiming for dodged to the left, though Aimless still smirked. "I can't miss," he grinned as he literally kicked the air and flew to the left to intercept the Shadow. He stabbed his spear straight through, killing the first Shadow before he feel to the ground.

"Melee skills!" Sabrina gasped in surprise.

Aimless simply turned to the girl and winked before jumping up into the air again, spear glowing again. "Anger Hit!" he shouted, this time thrusting his spear forward, pure energy firing from it. Despite how slow moving the attack flew, the Shadow in front did not dodge, taking the hit and exploding into black ichor. "Damn Shadow. That attack was even designed so it wouldn't hit that often at the cost of having lower accuracy," Aimless sighed. A Hablerie behind Aimless decided that the best chance to attack would be that moment as it flew towards him. Odysseus, however, grabbed the Shadow from behind and threw it to the ground before impaling it with his spear.

"He's strong…but at a cost," Sabrina observed as she watched Aimless, now taking deeper breaths. Melee skills took life energy from their user, something she learned from her original partner, Hiroto. "Kikuri-Hime…I can sense you again. Good. Dia!" Sabrina pointed her staff at Aimless, healing the player.

"I don't know any healers. That's pretty impressive!" Aimless gave a cheesy grin as he felt himself revitalized.

"D-Don't worry about it," Sabrina blushed.

The remaining two Shadows were darting around the battlefield eccentrically. Odysseus managed to catch up to one, spearing it from behind. Aimless charged his spear with lightening before diving towards the final one, dodging its tongue before finishing the job with a counter-attack.

"That was easy!" Aimless laughed as he walked over to Sabrina. "Good thing I got here on time."

"Y-Yeah! Thank you for the help!" Sabrina smiled, grasping his hands and giving a light bow.

"Hm, like I mentioned, I don't have a healer…would you like to team up?" Aimless offered.

Sabrina took no time before she nodded. "I'd very much like that."

The two players continued down the streets. As happy as they were, they still both felt that heavy presence the further they walked.

* * *

GM Yuzu's face was hidden behind her mask, but if you could see in, it would be a face deep in thought. It was a face that showed a tiny bit of worry, but it also had the look of someone who knew what had to be done.

"It's almost as if we can't escape the fighting and conflicts. I guess we chose this, though…"

"Yeah, I hear you," Yuzu's fellow GM, GM Hermes, said as he walked next to her. He wore the standard GM attire, a blue velvet cloak with the blue and light blue mask on.

"You can tell me you can relate to me, but I know deep down you're just enjoy this like any other of your lame video games," Yuzu laughed.

"I resent that…" Hermes sighed as he turned around. Six moderators were following them through the alleyways, along with one very special guest. "Hey, Crimson, come up here!"

CrimsonButterfly ran to the front of the group instead of the back. It had only been one day since Fallen was taken. His parents were devastated as she brought her best friend to their home. The worst part was that Crimson couldn't tell them what happened. Worse than that was that she didn't have an explanation herself. Now, she had to assist the people whose fault this was to do fight that dammed Shadow. Even there, she didn't know the full story.

Regardless, Crimson knew to keep quiet. The Administrator assured her that if she completed this quest, Fallen would return to normal. That's all she had to go on, and that's all she needed.

She could be mad later.

"Are you sure you're up to this? Our moderators have been training for battle since before the game was released to the public," Hermes asked the young girl.

"I'm sure," she responded blunting. Yuzu just looked ahead and kept walking. She couldn't bear to look at the face of the victim, especially when there shouldn't have been any victims in the first place.

"Just who is Visum…?" Yuzu asked herself as the group walked out of the alleyway. Just down the street was much larger building than the rest of the surrounding ones. This Magician was much like that one…climbing buildings. Yuzu scoffed audibly, earning a pat on the shoulder from Hermes.

"Ok team! On top of that building is The Magician, our target! The building is thirty floors tall and packed with Shadows. The entrance is closed with a vortex, though the very top is the exit. In other words, the fight to the top is ours alone, but at the top, we'll have the assistance of everyone else who reaches the top," Hermes shouted to the team. "We've had it lucky, having some of the support Persona users from HQ leading us away from the Shadows around the building, but from here on, it's going to be intense fighting."

Crimson nodded, focused on the GM. She had questions, of course, none about the operation, of course. Why were GMs involved in the fight? Shouldn't they have been administrating or some shit? They also talked as if they would also be trying hard to fight. Shouldn't GMs be super strong or whatever? Maybe they only had some special features given to them.

"Why can't we just take a helicopter and fly to the roof?" a random moderator in the group asked.

"You didn't look up before you asked that question," Yuzu asked, slightly annoyed. She pointed up. Immediately, everyone noticed the torrent of avian Shadows flying around the building. "They would shred us apart."

"Let's go. Eventually, the Shadow's going to move positions." Hermes began walking over to the building's entrance. It was a normal looking building, aside from the red portal replacing the entrance. A few players were resting near the entrance. Despite the hundreds of thousands of Immersion players, the only hints towards the location of this area were the atmosphere and word of mouth. Hermes guessed there was only about thirty or so people around the entrance. They were probably waiting for friends, though Hermes wondered why they didn't automatically assume that the surrounding Shadows might have taken any friends out.

Maybe they did know that. As Hermes got closer, he overheard conversations, including players being the only ones to make it here out of a large group of friends. People were at this point looking for teammates. Hermes counted his blessing that their group was able to make it. GMs or not, Lucia's guidance was probably the only thing that got their group to the entrance without losing anybody. He and Yuzu could have fought their way through, and the moderators were strong by their own right, but in the end, Hermes and Yuzu both needed Crimson to survive. They needed to make things right. They both knew, without saying a word to each other, that they needed to support this girl.

They knew that everything about Immersion was a risk. They had hoped that risk wouldn't endanger anyone else, but it was clear that Visum wasn't going to let that happen. Innocent people were now in danger, just for playing a game.

Yuzu wore a mask. If you could see her face, you'd see a few tears rolling down her face.

The fighting for her just wouldn't end.

* * *

**Thank you for reading. I'd love some feedback, if you're willing to give it, especially on the forum idea presented at the beginning of the chapter. Also, we're approaching the reviewer prize threshold. Take a look at my profile for more details.**

* * *

**OC Credits:**

**Sabrina (Garnet Williams) – kitefire**

**Hirato Ureno (Akio Matsuki) – True-Oblivion**

**Aimless Hero (Joseph English) – Book Stanfield**

**CrimsonButterfly and TheFallen (Akane Hiiragi and Saitou Okuda) – Mikisan4u**


	8. Chapter 8

**Message of the Day - Stronger Shadows won't be easy to take down! Expect long battles and bring friends along with you!**

* * *

**Immersion - General Discussion - Where can i find the magician?!**

**Post #1 - Lunarian **

Seriously! i've been looking everywhere for this stupid event shadow! can someone give me a hint or something?!

**Post #2 - Reaper**

Didn't you see the admin announcement? Players who are active in the fight to kill the boss get special loot. People aren't just going to post the location randomly. Who would be stupid enough to give away the chance at an advantage like that?

* * *

Three people. That's how large the party that was currently fighting The Magician was. Oracion had frantically been messaging friends the location of the Shadow, berating himself for being stupid enough to think that he could take it with only two others.

"Oracion?! How're you holding up?!" a female voice to the left of him shouted.

"I-I'm holding up just fine! Don't mind me!" Oracion gleefully laughed back to CelticShore, who he affectionately called Cel, despite the fact that he just took a direct hit from the colossal Shadow in front of them. Looking back at her, he could tell she was in as bad shape as he was. Of course, Celtic appeared fine as she smiled at Oracion with her bright blue eyes. Her waist-long strawberry blond hair still looked as pristine as when they first met (two days ago) while her sleeveless emerald turtleneck top and blue skinny jeans were also in great condition. Even as another fireball flew towards them, Celtic perfectly landed on her dark brown knee high heeled boots. Oracion, through moments like these, noted that clothes in Immersion tended to be sturdy, unless directly aimed for. Not that he would try something so sinister, of course.

"Hey, don't push yourself too hard, guys," their third teammate said as he ran over to the newly relocated team. Thus far, Shotsujin's stayed in the background, assaulting the raging Magician with his Persona and throwing knifes. Ever since his first fight with Taiga during the tutorial mission, he worked his hardest to perfect his long range magic role. After learning he could actively craft knifes, he decided he'd start learning how to throw them, instead of just using them defensively.

"Easy for you to say," Oracion shrugged as he got back up, noting how it was getting a little bit harder each time. "I'm not used to fighting this up close."

"Well, that's your fault for picking up two mages and long-range melee fighter," Celtic shrugged. "I mean, I use a freaking chain whip! I don't think we're prepared to-"

"Duck!" Shotsujin shouted as another flurry of Agi spells flew towards the party, who quickly dodged three different directions to avoid the attack. The rooftop they were fighting on was spacious, though the entrance was cut off due to a series of vents. Shotsujin guessed that was for the sake of the Shadow not being able to simple blast players as they entered the area. Ignoring the small quality of life addition, it was a very difficult battle because of the layout. The Magician moved fast while it attacked physically, though currently it was happy to simply throw fire spells around randomly across the rooftop, preying on the fact that the players had no real cover. Celtic noticed another problem as the group dodged the attack. Now they were all split up, and the Magician had the perfect opportunity to attack up close and personal once again.

"Damn! He's heading right for me," Celtic cursed aloud as her prediction came true. The Magician charged towards the girl, closing the gap between them in mere seconds as it prepared its multitude of swords. Celtic tossed her chain whip at the boss in desperation, resulting with the whip being deflected to the side by one of the many swords. Celtic tried to backstep away but immediately tripped and thudded onto the ground.

The two guys of the party had just recovered from dodging the Agi assault, quickly noticing the dire situation Celtic was in. Shotsujin quickly prepared a knife, focusing his Persona's power into it. With a quick toss, he propelled the wind-infused knife towards the Shadow's mask. The mask, held up near the top of the Shadow by one one arm not carrying a sword or acting as a leg, was quickly defended, all attention diverting away from Celtic and towards the high-speed knife flying its way. A myriad of swords met the knife, easily blocking it despite the power and speed behind it.

"Regroup!" Oracion shouted, with the two party members quickly scrambling and running over to Oracion.

"T-Thanks for the save," Celtic mentioned, still taking deep breaths as she fumbled to get up and dash towards the group. Her heart was pounding intensely from the near-death experience. Be it in a game or not, having a Shadow that large literally right on top of you was a terrifying experience.

"We've guessed that the mask was a primary target, but we didn't know how far it would go to protect it," Shotsujin replied, keeping an eye on the Shadow. Currently, it was taking its time, pacing slowly and circling around the party.

"When it attacks, we have to all dodge to the same direction. I suggest the right since most of us are right-handed. We can't afford to get split up again," Celtic mentioned, having learned from the last fight. Almost as if one cue, The Magician let out an ear-piercing screech as it pointed several swords towards the party. The swords started to glow at the end, signifying that it was about to cast a spell.

"That's a fast opportunity for practice," Shotsujin remarked as the fireballs started flying towards them. Per instruction, the three party members dodged to the right.

"Now!" Oracion shouted, holding out his staff. The staff was still the same kind he originally had. It looked like a large baton with a light blue glass balls on both ends. Oracion took a deep breath and focused as the balls detached, guided by his Persona's magic. He launched them at The Magician, attempting to strike the Shadow. The Magician did its usual tactic, bracing for a block with several of its swords. It was here that Celtic decided it was her turn. She closed her eyes and concentrated, resulting in her Persona's card appearing in front of her. She punched the card with her free hand, yelling out "Siren!"

Celtic's Persona appeared from the blue fog, revealing itself to be a female with long blonde hair, a bare body with golden feathers covering her breasts, while her bottom was covered by the same kind of feathers fashioned into a skirt. Long and purple claw-like fingernails adorned her hands and feet while she carried a long harp.

"Keep it occupied!" Celtic shouted as she dashed forward, her Persona quickly floating close behind.

"Got it, Cel!" Oracion smirked as he waved his staff, maintaining control over his orbs. The Magician was forced to constantly block as Oracion skillfully conducted the orbs, having one always pushing against The Magician's blocking swords while the other would fly around and aim for the mask.

Celtic started to run around The Magician as she directed Siren to run the opposite direction around it. "Now Siren!" As directed, Siren began her attack, strumming her harp as ice energy started to form in front of her. The next instant, Bufu fired forward, ready to freeze whatever it hit. Simultaneously, Celtic threw forward her chain whip towards The Magician's mask. The Magician frantically tried to fend off the two additional attacks heading towards it. With the few remaining swords it had to block with, several moved to block the Bufu, quickly freezing the entire arms and slamming against the ground. The Magician's mask snapped around to see the chain whip heading straight for it. With two swords, it attempted to swat the whip out of the way once again, but Celtic had already planned for that. With the large grin of a person whose plans went exactly right, she jerked the whip to the right and back left, letting the whip swing around and tie up the two sword arms. Aside from the arms the Magician used to hold up its main body, it only had one left as Shotsujin casually walked up to the Shadow.

"I'm about to finish this boss off..." Shotsujin muttered to himself under his breath. Shotsujin felt ecstatic. He had low-self esteem, and here was a moment where he was about to do something huge. He was about to be the one to finish the first world event.

"Hurry up, Shotsujin!" Celtic shouted. "I can't hold him forever!" Almost as if to prove her point, The Magician let out another roar, pulling harder on Celtic's chain whip with the arms they were holding down. The frozen arms started to form a red aura, heating up and shattering the ice. Instantly, Siren fired another Bufu, refreezing them. She followed up by continuously firing Bufu spells after this, constantly refreezing the struggling arms.

"I don't have the SP to handle this forever!" Oracion also commented, eyes still focused on guiding his orbs.

Shotsujin took a deep breath. "Persona." A glowing tarot card formed in front of him, and with a quick swipe of his knife, Prometheus was summoned. It was a humanoid Persona, wearing a knight's helmet and armor with one spike pointing upward. Chains, almost resembling a scarf wrapped around his neck, with the end reaching about halfway down its back. Another chain ran through a dark hole around where his liver should have been. Much like his partner, Prometheus was a magic-orientation Persona, having no weapon in his hands, his sword being secured in a sheath on his side.

"Prometheus! Garu!" Shotsujin shouted. A visible gust of wind was fired by the Persona. The Magician held its only remaining sword out, though the blast of wind blew it out of its hands. Shotsujin ran forward with a yell, throwing his one of his final knifes, once again infused with wind magic. The knife flew forward, sped up by the wind, heading right for The Magician's Mask.

The Magician let out a bloodcurdling scream as the knife flew. The main body began of convulse and suddenly a Persona shot out from the Shadow.

A humanoid fox with long black hair appeared and fired out a large fire blast, noticeably larger than a normal Agi.

"W-What the hell is that!?" Celtic shouted. The Magician, seemingly getting a second wind with its Persona summon pulled her chain whip hard, actually managing to snap it, much to Celtic's horror. The frozen arms went aflame again as well, this time staying on fire. Siren, per usual, fired forward Bufu, but the unknown Persona flew in front and fired Agilio forward, promptly overpowering the ice spell and flying at Siren. Siren took a direct hit, immediately returning to Celtic's mind to recover. "N-No way..."

"We were so close..." Oracion frowned, trying his best to continue his assault. With all arms and swords available, however, The Magician quickly rushed down the flying orbs with increased tenacity. Oracion tried to pull them back, but the Persona attacked with Agilio, actually managing to shatter both orbs.

Shotsujin cursed his luck. He was elated, only to get crushed by an unexpected turn of events. His face showed disdain, frowning at the Persona as his teammates dashed over to him.

"It's name is Inari..." Celtic frowned as she viewed the Persona's name on her display. "Why the hell does a Shadow have a Persona?"

"We should have known it wouldn't be this easy..." Oracion sighed, but kept on a smirk. "Well, Cel's whip got snapped in half, and my orbs are in several pieces over there next to the boss."

"I'm down to one knife," Shotsujin stated bluntly, disappointment and annoyance evident. "Where's your Persona, Oracion?"

Oracion paused for a second, smirk quickly being replaced by a frown. "If you must know, I can't summon him." Having known about Oracion's Persona difficulties, Celtic looked downward, avoiding Shotsujin's gaze.

"Great. I partied up with a guy who can't even summon his Persona," Shotsujin growled.

"Then take it down yourself, mighty Player," Oracion laughed in a lightly mocking tone, backing up before The Magician made a move.

Tired of waiting, The Magician indeed made its move. Inari flew up into the air, a red aura forming around its hands once more.

"Prometheus!" Shotsujin shouted, only focused on survival.

"Siren!" Celtic also shouted, though one could see exhaustion catching up to her quickly.

Oracion ran towards the side, trying to channel magic into his staff, though without the orbs to act as conduits, the unfamiliarity denied his efforts. As he looked up, his eyes widened. What almost seemed like small meteors started to form around Inari.

"W-What kind of spell is that?!" Oracion shouted, prompting the other two party members to look up as well.

"Watch out in front too!" Celtic warned, noticing The Magician holding out its swords. Before any of the three players could form a thought, both enemies fired their spells.

Celtic shut her eyes, knowing there was no way she would cheat death twice in a row so soon. She waited for the fatal blow. Though "pain" didn't exist, it felt hot.

The heat simply got hotter in the space of only a few seconds, though to the girl it felt much longer.

Then suddenly, the heat went away.

"W-Who are you?" Celtic recognized Shotsujin's voice, noting the increased and rare emotion. Celtic slowly opened her eyes, seeing a figure in a blue velvet robe in front of them. She should see nothing else but the back of the figure and her name, GM Yuzu. Above her was a Persona, tagged to her display as Isis. The Persona had a bull-like motif, but took the distinctive shape of the upper half of a woman covered with a large and regal steel cape, She had steel grey wings extended out to her sides, while her bull-horns held a large pink gemstone. What stood out to Celtic, besides the fact that she hadn't been killed, was the gemstone's bright shining. Also noticing the visible high winds around the group, Celtic was able to piece the information together quickly. The newcomer, apparently a GM, was casting a high level Garu spell. The fires from the two enemies were slamming against it, but the wind was too strong, effectively forming a barrier.

"It's tougher than before," Yuzu muttered to herself, out of the hearing range of anyone else. "At least I'm strong enough to hold you off, though."

Yuzu turned to the group, with all three party members being surprised by the strange mask she was wearing. "You guys need to go. You've had your chance to win, and it looks like you guys lost out."

The three players stared at Yuzu with the same expression.

"W-We're not out yet," Oracion spoke for the group. Shotsujin and Celtic both nodded in approval.

Oracion couldn't tell what Yuzu's expression was, but she simply stared for a little while longer before turning back around. "Is that resolve? Or is it stubbornness and pride? I'm not one to judge, personally. Fight if you must, but my priority is to kill this Shadow right now. You guys missing out on Immersion for seven days isn't really a big deal to me, so don't get caught in friendly fire."

Yuzu's tone made Shotsujin raise an eyebrow. She didn't say her statement in a way that made her seem like she was trying to get "useless" people out of the way. Instead, she seemed much more genuine. She wanted them to leave for their own good.

"I wonder," Celtic spoke up. "Why is a GM participating in an event like this?"

Yuzu simply didn't answer as the fires let up and Isis released her wind barrier, quickly retreating back into Yuzu's mind.

The Magician started scuttling back and around once again, reverting back to its old tactics now that there were more players present. It simple stayed back and fired Agi repeatedly, trying to keep enemies back. Inari, in the meantime, zipped around the large rooftop, firing Agilio at strange angles.

The battlefield became more of a shooting gallery. Shotsujin needed more time to cast spells, and with him only having one knife left, all he could do was dodge. Celtic's main weapon was broken and she was mentally exhausted, making it nearly impossible to summon her Persona. Yuzu was having a much easier time. With every step she took, it was obvious that she was a master with wind. She moved nimbly, using the wind to move quickly, yet gracefully. After every step, she thrust out a palm, firing Garula at Inari. Inari was fast as well, however, and soon, the battle between the two combatants turned into a high speed hit and run scenario.

"At the very least, that gets the Persona away from us," Oracion noted as he dodged a fireball to the right.

"We almost beat it once and then that Persona showed up," Shotsujin added. "We might be able to take it this time." Celtic simple nodded in agreement.

"Yuzu put it nicely," a voice from behind them interrupted. The players snapped around to see a player named CrimsonButterfly appear. "You guys are useless at this point of the battle."

Shotsujin was about to reply in protest, but he noticed something about the girl. She wasn't looking at them. She was looking straight at The Magician. Her eyes didn't convey any sort of fright or nervousness. They were resolute, even having hints of anger.

"We came up with a group of moderators as well. Their few that are uninjured are trying to tend to the wounded, so they're setting up a command post on the other side of the room behind the vents. Go take cover in that safe area and recover your weapons. If I haven't ripped this damned thing to shreds before you get back, you can get an assist for the loot," Crimson stated very matter-of-factly.

Before anyone could protest, both Celtic and Shotsujin said, "Ok." Oracion blinked, wondering exactly what he missed.

Celtic and Shotsujin made eye contact, both knowing that they didn't want to get in the way of whatever this girl was about to do.

"Come on, Oracion, the girl makes a good point," Celtic stated as she made a quick job over to the vents before vaulting over them and soon out of sight. Shotsujin quickly followed after, with Oracion following with a sigh right behind him.

"It disgusts me that you have to fight _his_ Persona, Yuzu," Crimson scowled, looking at the Shadow. "Even though it's just a program, I feel sorry for it being forced to fight us."

Yuzu again, didn't reply as she fought, skating around the rooftop with her wind and keeping Inari occupied. Now that there were less people, however, Yuzu decided it was time to silence the Persona. Yuzu willed her robe's long sleeves shorter as a bow materialized in her hands. A quiver did not spawn with it. Yuzu drew the bow as wind gathered around her hand. Inari moved fast, but not fast enough for the expert marksmen Yuzu had trained to be. Without an arrow, Yuzu fired the bow. The air directly in front of Yuzu broke as a wind arrow, visible with its trademark green lighting effects, flew at an extremely fast speed. Crimson had taken her eyes off The Magician for only a second, but it took even less time than that for Inari to get shot straight through. The Persona instantly shattered, returning to its host consciousness. With the side threat gone, Yuzu briskly made her way to Crimson's side, facing The Magician. The Shadow stood still, though it still moved to the side slowly and methodically.

"Fire won't work on it," Yuzu mentioned.

"Of course it's strong against fire," Crimson growled. "My Persona, Kikuri-Hime knows mostly Agi skills. It can use Zio, but I can't channel lightning to my weapons for some reason."

"Most people can use more than one element, but they only have an affinity for one," Yuzu commented.

"So, is it our shot!? I saw those guys retreating from earlier. They got beat up pretty badly!" Hermes shouted from behind the pair as he vaulted over the vents into the battle area.

"I'd say this brings back good memories, but this part wasn't all that great," Yuzu sighed. "Crimson, I'll repeat this again. You can't disclose anything you're about to see. We GM's have a few abilities players don't, after all."

Crimson simply nodded. The only thing she cared about was defeating this Shadow. If they were telling the truth, then defeating this Shadow might somehow cure Fallen. Even though she only knew them for a day, Crimson felt like she could at least trust the GMs. Their attitude suggested that they didn't want this to happen, yet, they advertised it as an event. It felt like a cover-up of sorts.

Crimson took a deep breath. None of that mattered right now. The enemy was in front of her, and the GMs were her allies. "Of course. The only thing that matters is what's in front of us.

"Thank you," Yuzu nodded before opening a console in front of her. Her hands at the same time started to glow with a blue aura. "Requesting soul server access."

Crimson noticed that the console in front of Yuzu was blank. As soon as her aura surrounded hand touched the console, however, the screen burst with information. So much data was running through the page that Crimson couldn't even see anything. Yuzu, however, did not press anything as changes began to happen to her. Crimson turned around to see Hermes doing the same actions. Soon, both of their robes pulsed blue, quickly changing to a different attire, though both were still wearing their masks. Hermes wore a black duster and a blue button up shirt. His dark navy jeans were tightened by a slightly large belt, and he wore a blue cap to cover his buzz cut brown hair. Yuzu wore a white button up shirt with a simple black skirt. She was a brunette with shoulder length hair.

Both of their names somehow changed as well on Crimson's display. GM Yuzu became Io while Hermes' name changed to Trismegistus.

"Just call us by our old names," Yuzu told Crimson. "We do this just in case we get seen. We're not here to make a name for ourselves."

"Plus, our identities are kinda sensitive." Hermes said, walking in front of the group as he took his mask off. Crimson was taken back by the confident smirk he wore on his face. Hermes looked ready for battle. His face had a short goatee while his eyes were grayish. Yuzu did the same, her eyes revealed to be brown as well. Her expression was different than Hermes'. She wasn't confident, but rather, she showed a look of regret. Despite this, Crimson could also tell she was ready to fight.

"_HQ to base,_" a voice echoed through Crimson's ears. "_This is Lumia._"

"_Thanks for the help, Fuuka!_" Hermes mentally shouted back to Lumia, though the entire group could hear it.

"_Y-You idiot, Stupei_!" Yuzu shouted back. "_Identities. Keep them secret!_"

"_L-Look who's talking!_" Hermes snapped back.

Crimson sighed, summoning her knives when she noticed The Magician's swords lighting up once more. A wave of Agi spells flew forward, interrupting the group's mental chatter.

"_Scanning the enemy reveals an immunity to Fire, Light, and Darkness_," Lumia informed the team.

"_Any weaknesses?!_" Yuzu asked she barely dodged a fireball, even with her wind assisting her. "_It's much faster than before!"_

Than before? Crimson couldn't help but get caught up on the subtle hints the two GMs were letting slip. She didn't have much time to think about it, however, as she was dodging fireballs of her own. After a quick roll, she tossed three knives at the Shadow. With blinding speed, it blocked every knife with one of its many swords. Yuzu tried the same tactic when she dodged, firing gusts of wind from her hands. The Shadow couldn't block those with its swords, instead having to take the hit directly.

"_It's weak to lightning! Use Zio skills!" _Lumia relayed to the party. "_Hermes! It's also resistant to slash attacks!"_

"Well, that takes out a few options," Hermes sighed. Crimson didn't notice him summon the greatsword he was holding in his hands, but it soon disappeared. "Persona!"

To replace the lack of a weapon, Hermes summoned his Persona, appearing with the name Trismegistus, the same name he changed his to. He bore a metallic red body, with giant steel wings extending from the back of his palms. His shoulder had wings extending from them as well, all pointing towards Trismegistus being an extremely fast Persona. "Gigantic Fist!"

The Magician instantly was blasted back by an explosion caused simply by Hermes' Persona punching the air in front of it. Significant damage could be seen on the Shadow, as it looked like a struggle for it to get back up. With a screech, it charged towards Hermes and his Persona, constantly firing spells at him. Hermes simply stood still as Trismegistus flew in front, literally swatting away the fire. "Cute. It think it's the only thing that can block fire." As it closed in, The Magician brandished its swords as it closed in, realizing that its spells weren't working. The multitude of blades all converged upon Trismegistus at once, but the large Persona simply dodged each slash, not even bothering to block.

"Yuka-tan, you wanna help out here?" Hermes shouted, though in a laid-back manner. Yuzu simply sighed back as she glided behind The Magician, firing her bow in a lightning-fast manner. As if to prove this point, the arrows flew so fast (most likely backed by wind magic) that there was a visible green trail chasing behind it. The arrows landed true, slamming not only into the back of the Shadow, but also lodging themselves into the sword arms. Several arms flailed and one even managed to disappear in an explosion of ichor. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, Hermes willed Trismegistus to counter the now-staggered assault. "Torrent Shot!"

Trismegistus backed up several feet as he prepared for the attack. Blindingly fast, he began a series of extremely fast punches, the metal wings augmenting the attack with its sharp bladed ends. The Magician reared back in pain, taking several steps backwards, obviously on its last legs. Crimson looked in awe at the performance so far. These guys were on a whole other level. Crimson didn't have to wait long to have to prove her worth, however. In a last ditch effort, Inari, the Persona that all three of them actually forgot about, dived down to assist the Shadow. A blue flame surrounded the fox as he dived, intent on ramming Crimson with the full force of Agilao. Crimson reacted fast, throwing several knives at Inari, but this did nothing to stop its assault even as the knives landed true in his shoulders. At nearly the same time, The Magician even threw one of it's swords towards her before Trismegistus charged it one final time. Crimson didn't have time to pay attention to the results of Hermes' attack as she braced for impact. Right before Inari was about to connect, however, he suddenly stopped.

"W-What?!" Crimson reactively shouted, immediately changing her focus to the sword instead. The sword was spinning with such a fast speed that Crimson knew for sure she wouldn't be able to actually block it with a knife. Inari, however, dived into the way at the last second. The Persona turned his head and smiled before shattering. The sword clattered with the concrete rooftop as Crimson beheld the sight behind the Persona.

"I-I got you, Akane."

"S-Saitou?!" Crimson shouted, tears almost immediately running down her face. In front of her, surrounded by a pool of black ichor, was Fallen, though he was lightly tinted with that trademark velvet-blue that was by now familiar to the players. He weakly had his hand held out, controlling Inari at the last second. Trismegistus hovered slightly above, confirmation enough to Crimson that the Shadow had been destroyed. Fallen, being the host, weakly fell to his knees. Yuzu dashed forward, clearing the distance in the short span of a second. She knelt down and held Fallen, who started to fade away.

"It's fine...you'll be fine when you wake up," Yuzu smiled. Fallen didn't even bother looking at Yuzu, instead keeping his gaze fixed on Crimson. The girl was also on her knees, crying with a mix of emotions from happiness to confusion. She dropped her knives and tried to quickly run over to her lover, but he faded away just as she reached him.

"W-What the hell was that?!" Crimson shouted, grabbing Yuzu's white shirt in near-desperation.

Yuzu just stared for a second, obviously distraught and not knowing what to say.

"_Crimson," _Lumia interjected, actually surprising the tearful girl for a moment. _"I promise that Fallen is ok. We need you to go make sure, however. Please go contact him in real life and let us know."_

"I'm sorry we can't tell you more," Yuzu frowned with a guilty expression across her face.

Crimson simply got up, wiping away a few tears. "O-Okay."

She opened her console, quickly moving to the log out screen. She needed to check on Saitou. She had to make certain he was okay. As soon as she felt her body's senses in real life, she promptly opened the reality link, ignoring the confused look of the room attendant. The very first thing that Crimson realized was that her face was cold and her vision was blurred.

She had been crying in real life as well.

* * *

**Wow! It's been a long time! Sorry about that slow update. A new semester at college tends to drain you more than you'd hope. Nonetheless, I should be out of my minor slump and I should be actively writing again! Yayifications! As usual, please review if there's anything constructive you'd like to say! I really feel kinda iffy at some points in this story, but I want to hear your feedback about it. What am I doing right? Wrong? Please contact me!**

* * *

**OC Credits:**

**CrimsonButterfly and TheFallen (Akane Hiiragi and Saitou Okuda) – Mikisan4u**

**CelticShore (Alene Faden) - MidnightSun12**

**Shotsujin (Jamiro Sam-Sin) - Laziness-Prevails**

**Oracion (Ace D. Fair III) - MewStar0013**


End file.
